White Ice and Black Blood
by Castanzacrew
Summary: The tragedy that befell Stellaris would be but a casualty in a war that would tear the world asunder. Princess Anna, the last surviving member of Stellarian royalty, has been thrown between the two opposing forces in this war: Death's incarnate of formless darkness, and a brilliant white knight of ice that is determined to protect Anna and her new family.[Action & a bit of Romance]
1. Chapter 1

Probably should have put this in when I posted this thing.

I'll say it up front, i have zero talent for creative writing, so to replace what i cannot imagine i will be attempting to incorporate as much scientific and biological fact into this story as necessary.

A heads up, given how terrible i am at writing in general i am expecting the "romance" section of this story to be cringeworthy, and thus i would like to alter the genres of this story to predominately "Action" with a bit of "Romance". It is sad that there is no "action" genre, but for this story i will be including that in its general description. Additionally, most of the "magical" happenings that will be taking place will be about 10% magic and 90% science, even if the science parts have yet to be explained in detail.

Lastly, because i have no idea what i am doing and i want to be on the safe side:

I am not claiming to own any characters that belong to Disney.

One last thing, the OC in this story will **not** be a minor character.

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><p>White Ice and Black Blood<p>

The Kingdoms of Stellaris and Arendelle had always been close, their rulers were even more so. The two Queens had been childhood friends, where as the Kings were life long rivals. Although their rivalry started out as one where both parties' pride hung in the balance of the outcome, over the years the two grew close. Upon entering adulthood they became great of friends. Even when they went their separate ways to rule their respective kingdoms they would often visit each other. Given the relationship between the queens, neither party had protested the frequent and often-unannounced drop in's from their royal friends.

Although the frequency of the Arendelle royalty's visits to their friends in Stellaris abated when the queen was with child, the persistent Stellarian royalty insisted upon dropping by to check up on their friends several times each month. Leading up to the birth of the young prince of Arendelle the Stelarrian Royalty spent more time in Arendelle than they did in their own kingdom.

While this may seem to be an irresponsible course of action by the King and Queen of Stellaris, the residents of the Kingdom could not find fault in the royals, for the King and Queen were deeply loved and revered by all. Additionally, the frequent appearance of the Arendelle Royals, as well as their openly friendly and joyous relations with the local royalty, had etched a similar place in the hearts of the citizen of Stellaris; much like the citizens of Arendelle had come to love the King and Queen of Stellaris.

Some time after the arrival of the rambunctious young little Prince Kristoff, the King and Queen of Arendelle as well as the King and Queen of Stellaris were back at it again, spending the majority of their time in land outside of their own Kingdoms. A few short years passed and the visits slowed once more, but not without reason. Again the Queen of Arendelle was with child, and much like they had before, the King and Queen of Stellaris visited Arendelle with renewed vigor. The pattern for the visits was much of the same, with the Stellarian Royalty spending more time in Arendelle than Stellaris leading up to the birth of the second in line for the throne. Much to the joy of the King and Queen of Arendelle, their second child was a beautiful baby girl with piercing icy blue eyes that simply whisked the breath away from the lungs of anyone who gazed at the precious, and oddly aware baby for too long.

The fact that the Arendelle Royals had two beautiful children – the strong and promising heir to the throne, Prince Kristoff; and the deliberate, regal Princess Elsa - was a source of playful ridicule between the Kings of Stellaris and Arendelle. The proud father of a King would mock his rival to no end, all the while urging his friend to delve into the world of parenthood, but the subject was one of conflict for the King of Stellaris. The Queen of Stellaris, from birth, had a weak constitution. She would often fall ill on her and her husband's travels to and from Arendelle. Only her persistence on visiting their dear friends kept the King from barring all travel to focus solely on nurturing the love of his life back to good health. The Queen's poor health had conflicted with the King's undying desire to be a father to a boy or a girl; to him the gender of the child did not matter, for he would love them for all eternity.

Upon finally voicing his concerns and desires to his wife, they both came to the conclusion that nothing worth doing comes without risk; and thus the royal couple decided to try to have a child. Much to the Queen's protests, the King insisted on forgoing all travel so to give the Queen some semblance of a stable state of health. Upon hearing about their friends intentions to have children the King and Queen of Arendelle increased the frequency of their visits to Stellaris several fold. After a long while of trying to get with child, the Stellarian Royalty were about to give up. Each month that had passed, with no word of success, had withered the moral of the citizens. Until, finally, after a long year of trying the Royalty of Stellaris succeed; The Queen was with child. The Kingdom rejoiced at the wonderful news, the moment word reached the streets an impromptu party was thrown; the citizens drank and ate their hearts out, all in celebration of a new tiny royalty to love and cherish.

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><p>The pregnancy was long and burdensome; it took its toll on the Queen and in turn the King. There was foreboding that the Queen would not survive until delivery, but through sheer will power and determination to see the kids of her friends and her own child playing together kept her motivated to survive to see such a wondrous event. Through the last arduous months leading up to the delivery, the entirety of the Arendelle Royalty was in Stellaris to support their dear friends. After a long and tiring night a new tiny royalty entered Stellaris - Princess Anna. She was graced with a smile that easily outshone the sun and compelling teal eyes that would put the hue of the ocean to shame, both residing on a freckled canvas. She was the embodiment of all things happy and wondrous. The celebration that was held the following night made the party held months prior seem like a mildly exciting tea party. The King and the tired, but alive, Queen spent every waking moment together with their new baby girl for the first few days. The Arendelle Royalty and the Stellarian Royalty were jubilant and eventually joined the citizens of Stellaris in their celebrations. The party outside was one without restraint, and certainly not one where children should be; let alone young and budding royal children. Thus Prince Kirstoff was tasked with watching over his precious baby sister Princess Elsa and the newborn Princess Anna of Stellaris. Prince Kristoff, even at 3 years old, was oddly mature for his age and thus could be trusted with guarding his sister and the newborn baby; not that he was truly alone while guarding them, in fact there was a whole detail of armed guards charged with protecting the three precious royals; a duty that each of them were proud to take upon themselves even with the party raging on outside.<p>

The baby Princess of Stellaris would often cry when left alone with Prince Kristoff – something about his rough atmosphere unsettled the tiny princess. the young Prince Kristof would always try to sooth the baby, even going as far as impersonating a reindeer with a nearby pair of branching candlestick holders. Only would the incessant crying stop when young Princess Elsa was together in the room with Princess Anna and Prince Kristoff. The young Princess of Arendelle, only 2 years younger than her older brother, could not yet comprehend the significance of that fact, but in time she would.

All was right in the world, the two friendly Kingdoms were happy and content. Arendelle had two beautiful children to adore, and Stellaris had its own bundle of joy to love and admire. Nothing could ruin this moment in time.

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><p>As the years passed them by, the young child royalties grew to become everything that their respective citizens and parent wanted them to become. Prince Kristoff grew into a strong burly man with rounded features, rustled blond hair, and a kind and caring personality. The Prince loved animals just as much as he loved people, but one creature truly caught is admiration, reindeer. He would often spend hours watching the majestic and noble reindeer that his father had procured for him one birthday. Nonetheless, as much as reindeer captured Kristoff's amazement and admiration, there were two other creatures that demanded his undivided attention; and he was more than willing to devote his all to his precious baby sister Princess Elsa and his childhood friend Princess Anna, both of whom were irreplaceable loved ones.<p>

Princess Anna had bounded and stumbled through the early years, always rambunctious and energetic. She seemed to be able to go on for days without sleep, but never without a meal. She had the appetite of a blue whale, and a sweet tooth that was equally proportionate. No hidden stash of chocolate could escape her nose, she could sniff out the treasure trove in a matter of seconds. Much to her dismay, her greatest enjoyment was also her greatest weakness, she would often be at the mercy of her tutors when chocolate hung in the balance between a right and wrong answer. But nonetheless, everyone loved her. Her unending smile would bring joy and laughter to the citizens. Her laugh would make their hearts swell in pure happiness and pride, her gorgeous teal eyes could see the beauty and wonder in everything and her personality was brighter and warmer than the sun. She could bring a smile to anything that breathed, as she often did with the citizens with nothing more than a joyful glance. She had an active and spontaneous character, always running, jumping or dancing. When she wasn't busy playing with the citizens in the town square, she would be off horseback riding, her favorite activity. Such rigorous activity had toned her body appropriately; her strong supple legs bear the weight of her well-muscled body allowing her to play endlessly without tiring. She did not have muscle bulk that resembled that of a man accustomed to heavy labor, but rather she simply had well-developed muscles that could carry her through to the end of any game or race that she challenged herself to. The young Princess' charms were perpetual, she was the center of admiration throughout he kingdom, the citizens would do anything she asked if it meant that they would be graced with seeing her molten copper locks that accentuated her mythical smile that was said to sparkle like freshly fallen snow. Her reputation spread beyond the lands of Stellaris, and as the years passed and Anna slowly approached the age of engagement, proposal offers began flooding into the Kingdom, each one hell bent on capturing the angel that inhabited Stellaris. Much to the dismay of the suitors, the King rejected every proposal that was presented to him, claiming that his daughter was not interested in marriage just yet, when in reality the King was simply being over protective of his precious daughter and wanted nothing more than the swat the wolves away from his baby girl. Out of all of those that fell victim to Princess Anna's charms there was one that was extra vulnerable to the flambouyant ginger, Princess Elsa of Arendelle. The two had grown especially close over time, their friendship bordering on something more for years; but neither party was brave enough to push the envelope and risk losing each other as irreplaceable friends.

Princess Elsa had grown into the embodiment of everything regal and elegant. As she aged, her figure took on that of a well-endowed woman. Her skin took on a porcelain white hue, and her breathtaking blue eyes only intensified as she grew into the beauty she was born to become. Elsa was also graced with a blessing from the gods, powers over ice and snow. Although, these powers were initially a source of fear and anguish for the small girl, her loving and understanding parents showed her the utmost support. Even the citizens had come to accept the ice as another god-blessed trait of Elsa's and they did not shy from the girl, instead they showered her in praise and love. After several long and tiring years of practice, all the while the citizens and royalty giving her their unrestricted support, Princess Elsa had gained control over her powers. Much to the relief of the King and Queen, Elsa's powers became a medium that allowed her to express her growing interest in architecture, and soon the girl that had once cursed her unholy gift, could not imagine living without it. With the mastery of her powers nearly complete, Princess Elsa began the break out of her icy shell. Previously, she would have devoted her all into remaining stoic and unfeeling, lest her powers run rampant and risk hurting the ones she loved. In the years that followed, the new and improved Elsa began to show signs of interest in a certain sporadic ginger. Now that she wasn't plagued with the fear of harming her dear friend, she was finally able to enjoy their time together; and soon their relationship began budding anew, in more ways than one.

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><p>Over the course of several years the relations between the two Kingdoms only strengthened. In addition to the bolstered trade and flow of money that traveled between the two kingdoms, allowing for both Kingdoms to experience years of perpetual prosperity, the desire to somehow join the two kingdoms grew in popularity. At first, rumors started out that Princess Anna and Prince Kristoff would be wed, but those rumors would not last too long. The King and Queen of Arendelle still kept up their usual antics of dropping by their dear friends in Stellaris, bringing with them the prince and princess. Over several years of these sporadic visits, the King and Queen of Arendelle noticed the looks that Elsa would sneak at Anna, and how their usually stoic daughter shinned like the morning sun off a bed of newly fallen snow, her face would display an endless warmth and admiration that would warm the entire room. After several years passed, the King and Queen saw the feelings that their daughter harbored only intensify. This development did not incur their anger or confusion, they accepted Elsa's feelings and strove to see to it that their daughter's dream be completed and secure Anna beside their daughter in marriage.<p>

The King and Queen of Stellaris were initially shocked when their dearest friends, the King and Queen of Arendelle, proposed an arranged marriage between Princess Elsa and their own daughter Anna. But soon enough they both warmed up to the idea after watching the interactions between their daughter and Elsa in a new lens; they could see the pure admiration that Elsa held for their daughter, and they knew that Elsa would do anything to make Anna happy.

While same sex marriages were not uncommon, even among royalty; there was often conflict about certain important matters, such as the issue of ascension. If both spouses were of the same gender, then conceiving a blood heir was rather difficult. However, both sets of parents became determined to not let such silly matters come between their daughters. So they arranged for their daughters to be wed when both came of age.

The announcement of the arrangement sparked a celebration to ignite in both Kingdoms in tandem. However this expression of pure joy and happiness was short lived. Shortly after the King, Queen, Prince and Princess of Arendelle reluctantly left Stellaris so to not vacate the throne for too long, tragedy befell the Kingdom of Stellaris.

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><p>The King and Queen held a royal party in the castle that fateful night, the attending members included a vide variety of royalty and nobles from other far away lands. Included in these partygoers was one well dressed and sophisticated looking man in a black tail coat and a top hat, his hair was as black as night and his eyes appeared to have no hue to them, only pupils. He fit the part, and blended in with the other royals well, but at the same time he was distinguished from those around him. He had an air that was unrecognizable and different from all of those other well-dressed nobility. All throughout the party he carried a jubilant grin that displayed his unending joy and excitement, but it was neither warm nor infectious. Like he was enjoying a humorous show that only he could see. But as the party was winding down he unceremoniously left, but no one paid him mind; as easily as he had joined the party, he left the party with no one sparing him another glance or thought, as if the moment he left the room he left their memory as well.<p>

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><p>That night, after the nobles were shown to their temporary chambers for much needed sleep, Death's incarnate descended upon the Kingdom in its sleep, much like a nightmare on an unsuspecting infant.<p>

Black sweeping tendrils danced through the city streets and castle halls alike, making no more sound than the wind does through an open and forgotten window. The lives of the nobles were snuffed out of existence with the ease of a tired sigh. The merciless killers spared no one: men, women, children, the elderly, the young, the rich and powerful, and the weak and feeble. In a matter of seconds the total number of hearts beating royal or peasant blood had whittled down to three. The King, Queen and the Princess.

The Queen, still plagued with a weak constitution awoke with a start in her bedchambers next to her spouse, her daughter simply a door away across the room. The Queen had suffered from a terrible nightmare where all that she loved and cared for was taken from her slowly, leaving her powerless to stop it; but soon the queen realized it was just a dream, and sat up in bed attempting to make out the bedroom that she knew by heart. The Queen had always been sensitive to her surroundings, and something in the room was sending a chill across her body. The chamber was dark; nothing other than the faint light from the moon that struggled through thick curtains illuminated the room. But much like other species, humans do not necessarily rely on their sight to ascertain their surroundings. The Queen stiffened, and strained her ears to hear something, anything; but the castle was quiet, aside from the faint snore from her beloved husband next to her, and the equally faint snore from her beloved daughter next door, which was further muffled by the physical barrier between them, she could hear nothing else. This fact unsettled her, she expected to hear dull singing from outside, surely the citizens would be partying for days on end, if past experience was anything to go by, yet she heard nothing; like the entire kingdom had been enveloped by a thick veil of silence that was on par with death itself. Then something stirred in the corner of her eye, she immediately gazed through the darkness in an attempt to identify the source of the movement. However, given how close the movement was to her and the fact that she did not hear any movement lead her to believe that it was only her imagination. Feeling her heart pound in her chest from her earlier nightmare dispelled any thought of returning the sleep, so instead she elected the rise from bed and go to the balcony to see if the parties had really ended. When she rose from bed she struggled to stay balanced, the weakness in her legs threatened to throw her to the ground, but after years of cooping with her weak body she had grown accustomed to her weak constitution and steadied herself on the nightstand. As she made her way to the balcony door, and the thick curtains that were restricting the brilliant light of the moon, she felt as if she was in the presence of something, not exactly human, but not intangible either.

Her senses would resemble those one would have when strolling through the woods late in the afternoon, when you start to make your way back home the forest grows dark and you hear rustling in the bush close behind you. You don't know what's in that bush, nor do you want to find out, you simply want to get as far from that bush as possible. Your Fight-or-Flight response kicks in and you instinctively choose to flee in fear of what resides just feet from yourself; it could be a rabbit, or a mouse, but it could also be a bear, or something just as sinister and deadly. So you run as fast as you can, your body prioritizing the bodily functions that allow you to run to your fullest potential, while other non-essential functions all but stop. You have one goal in your mind, run. Run to live and survive another day, to pass your genes on to the next generation, to perpetuate your legacy.

But the Queen simply brushes this off as adrenaline from her nightmare, although the rush of energy does help to strengthen her legs allowing her to carry herself to balcony curtains without leaning on other furniture. When she finally reaches the curtain she struggles to throw the heavy tapestry to the side, the act taking several attempts before she successfully flings the annoying thing aside, allowing for the light of the moon to flood the room. Immediately, she detects an anomaly behind her, as she turns her eyes fall upon a surreal mass of darkness about ten feet away. The formless, shapeless mass appears to consist of black droplets of water that are shimmering in place, but the droplets do not follow the properties of cohesion and adhesion, the water stays in isolated black beads that shift and sway in the air. Its as if there is a tree branch hanging over the window, casting unusual shadows on the carpet that have yet to be eradicated by the light of the moon; and yet these shadows are moving, pulsating, oscillating in place. It does not touch the ground, but appears to hover just above; in the forefront of the mass there are extended tendrils, the tips appear to be made of droplets that have melded together into a pointed tip as black as a moonless night. These tendrils slither forwards like a snake stalking its prey, their target is unmistakable; they intend on snuffing out the life of the beloved Queen, skewering her where she stands and drinking the royal blood as it leaves her cold lifeless body, never to return to her again.

The Queen sees her fate, and immediately thinks of her beloved sleeping in the bed just feet from her, and of her daughter just a room away. Both still snoring in joyous sleep, both ignorant of the black mass that now looms ever closer to them, like Death's incarnate. Moments before the black mass strikes, the Queen's frozen vocal cords finally thaw, but not in time to yell of warnings of the impending death.

"My love-" is all she can get out before the black mass strikes.

The tendrils of darkness hit their mark with deadly intent. The Queen had reacted just in time to shift the point of impact of the one that was aiming as her heart, had the harbinger of death found its true mark, the queen would have been reduced to a lifeless husk, killed in an instant. Instead she twisted her body, thus prolonging her life if by only a few moments and granting her an eternity of torment and pain through those few seconds.

The King had always been a light sleeper; he had grown accustomed to waking in the middle of the night to comfort his beloved wife and queen after she had suffered from a nightmare. But after the consumption of intoxicating concoctions from the party, he was slow to rise from the world of dreams. A noise from his beloved finally stirred him into opening his eyes, the sight before him would shatter his heart, grind what was left into dust and scatter it into the wind, only to be blown away in the currents of anguish and suffering. There stood his wife, just feet from him, with her left shoulder pierced by a black formless spear, another jutting from her abdomen, and yet another in her right thigh. The blood pouring forth from the wounds creating a river of red that cascaded down the tendrils of black, mixing with the black droplets yet not being absorbed into the mass. The blood continued to flow down the formless arm, dropping droplets of blood that did not adhere to the droplets of black, creating a horrifying trail of rich red in the shadow of the monster that hovered just above the drying lifeblood of the queen.

"_Anna…_" whispered the dying Queen, reaching for the door to her daughter's chambers.

The merciless creature twists its deadly barbs into the queen in an attempt to snuff out the life of its prey. The queen barely flinched as the pain explodes through her body; she is quickly losing blood and has lost the ability to even react to any stimulus to her quickly fading consciousness. Her only thought was one of regret, regret that should would not be able to see her beloved husband walk her daughter down the aisle at her wedding, how she would never get to see the sheer bliss and happiness that had graced her own features at her wedding, grace Anna's when she would marry. She regretted never being able to call her dear friend, Queen of Arendelle, her sister when their houses would be joined, and she regretted never being able to hold the two people she loved most in the world ever again, never again to feel their warmth, never again to profess her undying love for her daughter and husband, never again to receive their love in kind, never again to love or feel loved. Her last thoughts were of Anna, as she passed on, leaving her devastated husband and daughter behind to face the monstrosity that had stolen her from them.

The King's world was falling apart; his wife's cold, lifeless eyes locked onto the door to their daughter's room. His limbs were frozen; his vocals were blocked by the horror that had transpired before him. He watched the soul leave his wife's eyes as she passed. To see the light fade from her eyes and see her cold body go rigid with death was more than the King could handle. Before his frozen limbs could thaw, the shadow was upon him, smothering him. It's bloodied tendrils wrapped around his pulsing vitals, choking the life out of him, strangling him to death. The king fought back with what little movement he could muster, but to no avail. The black beads covered his body completely, blocking out the light, swallowing him in darkness. The room fell silent as the life of the once beloved King was slowly leaving his body. The tendrils pressed down on his neck so hard that the blood flow in the vessels just below the skin was cut off. The Kings eyes began to bleed due to the built up blood pressure in the blood vessels in his eyes, his brain cells began to die from lack of oxygenated blood flow. The King fell into a state of deliria as his brain functions began to shut down one by one. Then his body began to shut down, his crushed windpipe dispelled any possibility for fresh air to fill his lungs once more. His body was failing, no longer could his essential organs function without precious oxygen keeping them alive. Slowly and painfully he drifted into a state of unconsciousness, the body's last ditch effort to survive; by shutting off everything the body strived to prolong death in the hopes that this dire situation may pass shortly and allow for the body to reboot its bodily functions once essential oxygen is returned to the body, but even that last ditch effort is wasted. The formless shadow is merciless, bearing down on the King's throat with renewed vigor, determined to squeeze the life out of the King. The King, unaware of his current situation due to being unconscious passes without a single thought. His brain has shut down in an attempt to preserver the whole, but instead he passes from a temporary sleep into an eternal sleep without so much as a protest, neither vocal nor mental.

And in that moment, the King and Queen of the beloved Kingdom of Stellaris had dead, along with every other kind soul that once illuminated this once great kingdom with life. All that remains is the beloved princess, for whom the entire kingdom's inhabitants would not hesitate to exchange their lives her hers if it meant that the princes would live, and yet fate is not so kind. The black mass had nearly fulfilled its duty, to kill every single breathing soul in the Kingdom of Stellaris, and now its assignment was about to be completed. It has but one target left to eradicate, it has just one more light to snuff out of existence. It does not hesitate, it does not contemplate, it simply moves for the kill.

The formless monster moves from its perch atop the corpse of a king, and moves towards the door that joins the Princess' chambers to the King and Queen's. The formless mass slithers and splits into disproportionate streams of flowing black beads. The beads begin to change shape, from perfectly rounded spheres into flat discs whose thickness must be measured on the atomic level. These flat tendrils easily slide between the door and doorframe, converging once more on the other side of the door, before the still sleeping princess.

The creature advances at once for it does not know the concept of hesitation, what had transpired in the previous room with the Queen cannot be called hesitation. The creature had been discovered and needed time to assess the possibilities and needed to formulate plans of action had the Queen reacted differently. It deduced that the best way to kill the Queen while maintaining its element of stealth would be to kill her instantly by piercing her heart, but to be on the safe side the creature targeted two additional locations to ensure the death of the queen. The tendril that found its mark in the Queen's abdomen was intended to target an area that would be most vulnerable to internal bleeding; the tendril that struck her leg attacked there as a failsafe, should the queen somehow evade the fist two tendrils the third would cripple her movements by incapacitating her leg. Surprisingly, but not outside of predictions, the queen had twisted her position causing the creature's first target to missed it mark. But it did not matter; the other two targets met their marks perfectly, the one in her abdomen would result in her bleeding out in mere moments, and the one in her leg sealed her fate, denying any possibility of escape.

The silencing of the king was the easier of the two killings, and was less demanding of the creature to plan ahead. Although the creature preferred to make its victims bleed to death, it was impartial to strangulation. Something about the victim unknowingly passing on to the next world gave the creature slight enjoyment. The soul would surely suffer in the next life, having died without ever knowing it.

But that was the past; all that the creature had its mind on now was the target before it. It momentarily filtered through methods for ending the life of its final victim for the night, and it elected to kill her just as it had killed her father. In the next instant the creature leapt upon the young sleeping girl, her snoring instantly stopped from the halted airflow through her windpipe. But the creature did not crush her throat, no; it wanted to enjoy this last one and watch as the life faded from her young and budding eyes. It wanted to watch as those bright teal eyes fade to a dull lifeless green in death.

Anna was initially slow to wake; one too many times had her childhood friend Prince Kristoff snuck into her bedroom, only to pinch her nose while she slept cutting off her precious air supply and jolting her awake when her body screamed in its need for fresh air. But this time was different, what would normally be a slow process, was an alarmingly quick one when she felt the pressure on her neck. Shortly afterwards her eyes shot open, and her mouth opened wide to suck in much needed air. Only it didn't, her lungs expanded to suck in precious air, but the flow was blocked by a weight pressing down on her neck. Initially, she couldn't see the source of the weight; everything was black in front of her, but then when she saw a moon beam filter in through the thin curtains that veiled an open window she saw the horror that was on top of her. A black swarm of beads that seamed to shiver, and flow in random directions was pinning her to the bed. Tendrils of darkness were secured around her wrists and legs, pinning them at her sides and against the bed, and additional was wrapped securely around her neck, squeezing the life out of her.

The seemingly endless light in Anna's eyes was fading; death loomed closer over her threatening to whisk her away at any moment. In the few moments she had left, before her body entered the same emergency state as her father's had, her thoughts were of Elsa.

"_I never told her…_" Anna thought in her last moments

"_I never told her!_"

"_Elsa-_" mouthed Anna as the last bits of her life began to slip away.

In her final moment, Anna's world did not fade to black nothingness as her father and mother's had. Instead her dull, and blurry vision was filled with a pure white. This whiteness enveloped her, and cast off the shadow that was about to kill the last of the Stellarian royalty. The white covered her like a blanket, protecting her from the now recovered black creature. Anna was slipping in and out of consciousness, having come so close to death that even now her life was hanging by a thread, in her delirium she heard the muffled sound of a voice declaring _something_ in the direction of the black mass, in the next moment Anna was out, only to rise back from the murky depths of unconsciousness moments later, but just not being able to break free to the surface. She saw someone leaning over her, her eyes were blurry and murky, making the visual identification of anything a challenge, the stranger was inspecting her and saying something in a muffled voice, she could only hear a piercingly high-pitched ringing in her ears and could not comprehend the words being spoken to her. With the last bit of strength left in her Anna turned her head to squint at where she had last seen the black creature. Her mind was slipping into unconsciousness once more, but at her last moment of cognition Anna saw the black creature embedded into a white sculpture of jagged edges, the material that made up the sculpture was clear, but had a subtle white opacity to it, around the base of the sculpture there was an odd mist that seemed to shy away from anything that emitted heat, floating just above the ground. In her last instant of consciousness Anna recognized the material that the sculpture was made from, the sculpture was in fact a structure of crystalline ice.


	2. Chapter 2

Again, just to be safe:

I do not claim to own any of the characters created by Disney

Like i said before, cringeworthy romance. I am not expecting this to be well liked, I am simply using this story as an outlet for my imagination (or whatever it is that i have).

I know I said before that this will contain science-ish magic, but that will not begin until next chapter.

I suppose thats another thing, i had originally intended for the first post to be a prologue but i accidentally jumped straight into the story. So the first post is techincally "Prologue + Chapter 1" and this will be "Chapter 2" (the quotation marks are because these are not nearly long enough to be considered "chapters")

Had to rewrite this one several times over, I just did not like where it was going. If you think the timeline is confusing, you're not wrong, it is.

Aside from more depressing self-deprecation, I have nothing to say. So, enjoy; even though i know few will.

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><p>White Ice and Black Blood: Chapter 2<p>

Stellaris has fallen. Nobility and citizens alike had all been slaughtered. The harbingers of death left no trace behind, only death and a sea of blood. All but one of the demons of darkness returned to the wretched pit that birthed them. In exchange for that one soldier of black, a single soul still burned in Stellaris, the last remaining Stellarian, Princess Anna.

* * *

><p>Several days passed in Arendelle, and the King and Queen could not shake their unsettled nerves. They expected their dear friends to visit them, if for no other reason than to let Anna and Elsa spend time together. Yet, they heard nothing from their friends. The situation grew eerie when the first shipment of Stellarian goods failed to arrive on the first of the month. The citizens of Arendelle grew nervous, their favorite sister kingdom had appaently cut all contact with them. Finally, after a month had passed with no contact from Stellaris, the King and Queen sent an envoy to Stellaris to inquire about their sister Kingdom's silence.<p>

The envoy was gone a short week, but upon their return they became the heralds of news that would crush their beloved King and Queen. The captain of the envoy recounted their exploration of the now dead city, and the lack of all signs of life. As the story progressed, the captain came to the moment that he was dreading, he was obligated to deliver perhaps the worst news possible, straight to the still hopeful faces of the King and Queen. He recounted the discovery of thousands of graves buried in a field just outside of the city, in the center lay two graves with elaborate gravestones made of some sort of glass, etched within the glass was the Stellarian Crest of a twinkling star. The news of their dead friends devastated the King and Queen, but perhaps their saving grace, was what the soldiers also found nearby in a shed. Within lay the last of the Stellarian bloodline, Princess Anna.

* * *

><p>The Royals of Arendelle were in the woes of grief over the loss of their dear friends, but they knew they had to be strong for Anna's sake. So they swallowed their grief and dedicated themselves to caring for the young Princess. However, another crisis soon emerged; the Princess refused to wake. According to the captain of the envoy they had found her asleep, but they could not wake her. Anna's condition persisted even in Arendelle, she had fallen into a comatose state, that was attributed to the traumatic experience that she must have experienced when the Kingdom mysteriously died.<p>

Elsa spent nearly every waking moment next to her beloved princess, waiting for her to wake up. She would arrive in the early morning with breakfast, in the hopes that Anna would stir from the scent of her favorite breakfast meal, chocolate chip pancakes. At noon Elsa would reluctantly part with Anna for lunch, when the maids would come to wash her body, only to return by her side the moment the maids had finished. In the Afternoon Elsa would read to Anna, often about fantastical journeys and storybooks with happy endings. Elsa would remain by her side into the night, only retiring for the night once the castle had grown quiet and still. Elsa repeated this process, never missing a moment next to Anna, this pattern would continue for days on end. Those days would stretch into weeks, weeks into months, and months into a full year. It would not be until the anniversary of her parent's death, that Anna would stir one late afternoon during Elsa's reading. The momentous relief and joy that flooded through Elsa when she saw her beloved's brilliant teal eyes flutter open, cannot be represented to their fullest extent in words. All the fear and worry that had been building over the past year that was nearly suffocating her was swept sway by tidal wave of relief and joy that cascaded over her in that moment. The kingdom rejoiced, the last remnant of their once beloved sister Kingdom had awoken, but the King and Queen of Arendelle, still had a heavy message to deliver to the newly awoken princess. There was debate among the royalty of Arendelle, as to whether they should wait before giving Anna the news that she was the last of her family, but the King and Queen insisted that Anna had the right to know what had transpired in Stellaris, even if they did not know the whole story. To say that Anna did not take the deaths of her parents well is an understatement. She suffered from a panic attack shortly afterwards, much to Elsa's dismay she could do nothing to comfort her love aside from holding her as she wept, whispering words of reassurance in her ear. Eventually, Anna's labored breaths slowed as she slipped into unconsciousness once more, the royals of Arendelle feared they had sent her back into another perpetual slumber, but much to the relief of the Elsa and her family, Anna woke the next day.

It was a long and arduous process to heal from such a near death experience, but Anna had Elsa beside her, she also had the King and Queen and Prince of Arendelle showing their unconditional support. Even though Anna had lost her family in Stellaris, she soon realized she had yet another warm and caring family here in Arendelle.

Anna never forgot about her savior, nor the how they eliminated that formless monster with what she believed was ice. She was convinced that her savior was none other than Elsa, even if the circumstances did not seem to match, she would often thanked her,

"Elsa thanks again for saving me." Anna would often say, but omit _–from that monster that nearly killed me._

"I did nothing of the sort, I just spent time with you; we all looked after you when you were asleep." Elsa would respond every time – unaware of the misunderstanding that was brewing.

Anna knew that Elsa was humble, even humble enough to claim to have done _nothing_. Anna _knew_ that the one who saved her from death could be none other than Elsa, even if she could never get the blonde to admit it.

Elsa on the other hand had summed up Anna's exaggerated gratefulness in the events that followed her return from Stellaris as her flamboyant personality dramatizing Elsa's, self-convinced, insignificant contribution to Anna's recovery in an attempt to make her feel better, and it worked.

* * *

><p>Another year passed, and the Kingdom of Arendelle had finally put their grief behind them. They were moving on, but not forgetting; they would never forget their dear friends from Stellaris. The mystery behind the events that transpired in Stellaris was never solved, Anna's description of a black formless creature that nearly killed her, was treated as a figment of her imagination. Physicians claimed that her mind had yet to fully coop with the end of her kingdom, and thus created this surreal monster to blame. There were those select few who did believe Anna, Elsa being the primary supporter. They never found who dug the graves either, given the sheer number of graves, the lead investigators theorized that it would have taken at least 20 men and one week to move all the bodies, let alone dig every grave. Then there was the mystery about the glass gravestone bearing the Stellarian crest, the glass used to forge the gravestone was of the purest quality that the investigators have ever seen, they brought glass masons to inspect the grave diggers skills hoping that it would give them some clue as to who had properly buried their kin. Their efforts were fruitless, the glass masons said that whatever the gravestones were made of, was no type of glass that they had ever seen. Its clarity resembled that of water, and it was always cool to the touch, even on the sunniest of days when the sun had been beating down upon the graves for hours. Seeing no further progress in uncovering what had happened to Stellaris, the King and Queen of Arendelle reluctantly called off the investigation.<p>

After Stellaris had fallen and the neighboring kingdoms had sent their condolences, the King of Arendelle was bombarded with proposals of marriage for his daughter Elsa. Everyone had assumed that because the Kingdom of Stellaris was no more, that the arranged betrothal between Princess Anna and Princess Elsa was void. Outraged by their greed and selfish assumptions the King made a public announcement about his intentions to see through to the end the last wish of his dear friends, the deceased Stellarian Royal, by renewing Anna and Elsa's engagement. There were protests from the nobility, claiming that the King was marrying his daughter to a corpse, and that Stellaris was no more, thus there was no reason to renew the contract. The already infuriated King declared that anyone who dared to belittle the memory of his dear friends or their still living daughter would face his wrath and would be asking for war.

As for Anna and Elsa's plans for the wedding, the fall of Stellaris had slowed the process to a halt. Anna needed time to grieve and recover from her trauma, before she was ready to delve into marriage, but Elsa would wait – for all eternity if need be.

Elsa and Anna hardly spent time apart from each other, they would often go on journeys and strolls through the city of Arendelle, losing themselves and all track of time in the presence of the other. On their walks the citizens would never cease their efforts to make the princess duo smile and laugh, the goal would easily sufficed as a reward for their efforts. Anna had come to love every citizen of Arendelle just as she had done in Stellaris, and the citizens loved her in return.

* * *

><p>On one such stroll through the city, Elsa and Anna found themselves in a less populated section of the city as the last streams of the sun were setting on the horizon. The two princess elected to start making their way back to the castle, lest the guard come looking for them. Yet somehow they had gotten lost, seemingly walking in circles to no end. After half and hour passed, Elsa finally voiced her concerns to Anna,<p>

"I feel like we've been here before…"

"hmm?" hummed Anna, clearly not listening to Elsa, she was enjoying being next to her beloved a little too much.

"Anna! I think we're lost." Exclaimed Elsa, snapping Anna out of her dazed state.

"How can we possibly be lost? All we have to do is walk towards the castle."

Anna's proposition was a simple enough method for righting their bearings, yet when they raised their eyes in search of the castle, they were met with a dense fog that drifted just above the skyline of the surrounding buildings. Mild fear and panic started to rise in the throats of the Princess duo in tandem. Reluctant to stay in one spot for two long the two agreed to keep moving in the hope that they would find themselves at the castle gate in no time. They were, however, not that lucky. Soon another half an hour had crept by, and the now flustered princesses were no closer to their goal. As time continued to flow forward, night descended upon them; the air around them began to grow frigid, effecting Anna more so than Elsa. The older girl wrapped an arm around her beloved and began rubbing her opposite shoulder to generate heat. Anna, welcoming the contact put an arm around Elsa's back, pulling the two closer still.

The two continued to walk on; when slowly Elsa noticed that their environment began to change subtly. A thin layer of frost began to manifest on the surrounding ground and on the buildings they passed by. Concern burrowed deep in Elsa's heart,

_Am I so scared that I'm losing control?_

Elsa thought, the possibility was not altogether zero, but she felt she had a good grasp of her emotions at the moment. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that as the ice grew in girth it never seems to approach the two. The Ice grew thicker and thicker with each passing minute. Anna finally noticed the expanding ice with a start,

"Elsa! Why is there ice everywhere?" Anna gazed at Elsa with narrowing eyes. Her features shifted into one of scrutiny as a thought crossed her mind.

"Elsa~. Is this one of your ploys to get me to spend more time with you? To get me to hold you close as we walk down this creepy street?" Anna's voice bursting with scrutiny and something else that Elsa did not identify immediately, was it affection?

Elsa, attempting to lighten the mood, "now that you mention it that is a pretty good idea. But no Anna, this is not my ice. The hue is wrong." Elsa explained

"The hue?"

"My ice is tinted with a subtle shade of blue, probably because my favorite color is blue, but this ice has no color to it. Its pure white."

_White?_ Thought Anna, feelings of nostalgia bloom in her mind as she gazes at the pure white frost enveloping the town

"Elsa, I get the feeling I've seen this ice somewhere before…"

"What? … When? ... Where?"

"I … I'm not sure." Anna mumbles, as she detaches herself from Elsa, moving towards the ice.

Elsa missed Anna's warm immediately, but switches focus to Anna's movements as she slowly approaches the mysterious ice. Every logic driven fiber in her brain scream to stop Anna from touching the ice, yet her heart feels no fear for the ice, nor does she sense any hostility in the layers of frost that had surrounded them.

Slow but steadily, Anna creeps closer to the ice-encased wall, reaching her hand out to touch it.

Her hand, about to touch the ice, prepares for the contact with the chilled solid, but her delicate skin never meets the cold surface. A centimeter from the pad of her middle digit, the ice begins to recede. It doesn't melt, but rather sublimates directly into a gas, skipping the liquid state of water. The ice evaporates further as Anna's hand pushes onward, until it meets the solid wall that the ice had hidden from the world. Puzzled, Anna pulls her hand back and returns to her place beside Elsa, they watch as the mist that was growing in density around them moves to the hole that had recently been formed by Anna, the mist depositions from a gas into a solid to fill the hole.

* * *

><p>Thoroughly disturbed the two princesses decide to keep moving in silence. The vocal void stretches on until they heard a faint noise in the distance. The sound resembles that of shattering glass, the origin of the sound is just around the corner. As the two young women slowly advance to the corner of the street, the sound grows in intensity. The crackling of something fragile, and the impact of something solid, and the odd sound of shuffling on the ground – as if someone, or something, were pivoting and sliding across the ground.<p>

Anna was the first to reach the corner, when she did a loud thud resonated through the buildings. The sound resembled that of a powerful strike landing true on the center of gravity of the target. The receiver of the blow was instantly propelled backwards straight into to wall of an abandoned house, the force of the blow was enough to propel the victim through the weakened boards of the rotting building.

Anna peaked around the corner with her head to see the source of what sounded like a brutal beating. The sight that lay before her, instantly resurrected her half-forgotten nightmares of her near death experience.

What stood on two incorporeal legs, and shimmered with in the moonlight, was a demon of black beads that appeared to oscillate and rotate around the non-existent body. One long tendril, in the place of its arm, came to a point and had white frost coating its surface. The monster appeared to fluctuate in size, with the beads moving rapidly when the form expanded and slowing when the form shrunk, as if breathing heavy. The harbinger of death stared into the gapping hole that it had just created searching for its victims corpse.

The sight of the monster froze Anna, she could not move, nor speak. She stood their trapped by her own body. She was holding her breath, but when she threatened to faint from oxygen deprivation, she let out a not-so-quiet gasp that caught the attention of the demon.

Immediately it reared in the direction of the sound it detected, expecting to see its adversary prepared to strike, but instead it saw a girl. The demon instantly recognized the girl as the one victim that had escaped its death grip that night all those years ago. Instinct kicked in and it raised its frost covered tendril, with the intent to kill, aiming for the life of the young girl.

Just before the tendril struck, Anna was enveloped in white for the second time in her life. The tension of the situation had taken its toll on her body, and she fainted into the arms of her beloved just behind her. The walls of white surrounded the two girls protecting them, and giving them sanctuary from the demon that raged on outside.


	3. Chapter 3

Just to be safe:

I am not claiming to own any characters created by Disney

A slight repeat, I enjoy finding scientific explanations for seemingly "magical" phenomenon. Therefore, most of the "magical" happening that will be occurring in this chapter will have at least some sort of scientific explanation. If I am way off base with any of my explanations, please let me know and I will correct them.

Also, I don't really consider myself skilled at description, so a lot of the time you may see me write the minimal description of an appearance. I do this because I feel that a story is more enjoyable if there is somewhere to input one's own imagination. By leaving some things description-less, I hope that you as readers will come up with your own details make the story unique for you. Sappy, I know, but I often found myself doing this when I read other works, so I figured I would purposely leave details out for you as readers to delegated as you see fit.

By the way, this chapter is more action-y than the ones before it, still sad that there is no "action" genre on this site.

Thats all i have to say so, enjoy; even if I know few will.

* * *

><p>White Ice and Black Blood: Chapter 3<p>

Just beyond the white veil that surrounded the two girl, raged a war between white and black. The opposite forces clashed with ferocity, both hell bent on eradicating their adversary. From inside of the white shell, Elsa could feel the movements of the two forces, precise and accurate, with the intent to kill emanating from every strike. In her arms lay an unconscious and instinctively cowering girl, it plagued Elsa that she could do nothing but brace the girl and wait for the storm that raged on outside to pass.

With nothing better to do Elsa began inspecting the white cage that had seemingly materialized out of nowhere, just in time to save Anna. The first notion that struck Elsa as odd was the fact that Anna and herself were not in complete darkness. The blank walls seemed to radiating with a soft glow, illuminating the entire shell with a soft white light. Confused, Elsa reached out to feel what the shell was made of. To her surprise she felt a chill resonate through her hand when she made contact with the frozen wall, the shell was made of ice.

_But how can ice be glowing?_

As the explanation escapes her grasp she elects to deduce as much from this shell as possible in an attempt to unlock its secrets. In contrast with the light that was emitted by the wall, the ice was lacking a distinct property that is characteristic of all naturally formed ice, the chill. The internal temperature of the shell was deceptively warm. At first Elsa just assumed that her natural resistance to the cold was interfering with her ability to deduce the actual temperature inside this cage. However, as she holds her beloved, she feels the warmth that is radiating from Anna's body, especially how that warmth is not being whisked away by the ice surrounding them.

Under normal conditions, ice acts as a heat "sink," absorbing thermal energy from its surrounding and using that energy to break the molecular bonds that hold it together. This same phenomenon occurs in a glass of ice water, the ice cubes absorb the "heat" in the water and in turn melt as layers of otherwise bound molecules break off. Conventional thought usually says that water with ice stays cool because the water is absorbing the "coldness" from the ice cubes, when in reality the ice cubes are absorbing the "heat" from the surrounding water.

However, this phenomenon was not occurring. The heat from Anna's body was radiating out into the air, just as it always does. In fact the labored breaths from the unconscious girl was slowly heating up the air inside the shell. This clear violation of the natural laws of thermodynamics lead Elsa to the one last possible explanation that could account for everything that was happening up until now, this ice was not natural, it had been created by someone like her, someone with ice magic.

* * *

><p>Just outside of the white dome that had encased the two girls, stood a black demon with an incorporeal form. Its black pike, about to pierce the heart of its former victim, had landed on the white wall with much force, yet there was no damage. None of the defensive construct that the black demon's adversary had conjured up until now had been as solid and impregnable as the one before it now. The solid white walls stood defiantly before the black tendril as it was bathed in and reflected the light from the full moon.<p>

Agitated by its second failure to kill the girl, the formless creature reared its arm to strike again, this time harder and with more force than it deemed necessary to break the shell. The black beads that swirled in the silhouette of an incorporeal man surged forward with the momentum of all the energy stored in its incomplete form. Surely the white wall would crumble from the massive impact of this strike, but at the last instant before the strike landed on the flat surface of the shell, the ice shifted. Prior to the demon's attempt to reach the two girls, the shell was a simple hemi-sphere that curved with perfect grace around the two girls inside. At the moment before impact the ice shifted, taking on a more rigid and structurally sound conformation. The curved ice became flat hexagonal slabs, forming a stunningly elegant dome consisting of numerous hexagonal faces.

The anger fueled black spear easily bounced off of the reinforced ice, sending the demon into another bout of fury and rage. With the demon's attention focused solely on the impenetrable white shell before it, its adversary donned in white rose from the wreckages of the abandoned building to prepare to strike at the unsuspecting formless monster.

* * *

><p>Elsa's revelation brought forth answers to more than just their current situation. One night some time ago, Anna had recounted every excruciatingly painful detail from that night two years ago; the portion that stood out the most to Elsa was the ending of the attack that Anna described. Anna had said that she couldn't remember everything, but she did remember being enveloped in a white light, just before death, that saved her and protected her, she also recalled seeing a clear solid substance that resembled extremely pure glass. Following her memories from then on, the next moment Anna experienced was waking up to see Elsa embracing her with tears streaming down her face. Elsa had assumed that the monster from Anna's memories had mistaken the girl for dead, and left when the girl had simply fallen unconscious. She also correlated the clear solid that Anna saw to the gravestone that had been placed at the head of her parent graves. However, if she thought back to Anna's story with this new revelation in mind, the events played out much differently - of course this was pure speculation on Elsa's part, but as she intelligently worked through it, the more believable the series of event appeared.<p>

_What if the monster that attacked Anna two years ago had not mistakenly left her unconscious? What if she was rescued by whoever summoned this white ice? That would explain Anna's depiction of a "white light" enveloping her. That would also explain who dug those graves in the field … wait, no it wouldn't. If only one person did saved Anna it would have taken them at least a full month to dig all those graves and bury all those people … then again, no one knows when Stellaris was attacked. If it was the night after my parents, Kristoff and I had left, that the black monsters from Anna's memories attacked, then Anna's rescuer would have had just under a month to complete the task. _

Elsa's mind frantically tried to keep up with the unfolding of events from two years ago. Then she remembered the graves, more specifically the gravestone that marked her once future Aunt and Uncle's graves.

_That mysterious glass gravestone couldn't be ice, could it? I've never heard of ice that doesn't melt, then again we are talking about magical ice. I may be a wielder of ice magic, but I suppose even I don't know _everything_. Even this shell that we are sitting in is clearly ice, yet it doesn't chill the air and it's glowing!_

Elsa's mental ramblings were cut short by a shifting of the ice. The once curved and smooth surface of the inside of the shell, morphed into flat panels. Glancing around, Elsa inspecting the full extent of the change, there were numerous hexagonal panels, including one larger one that she and Anna were currently lying on. The panels were subtly irregular, being slightly taller than they were wide, to accommodate for the overall curved structure. Nonetheless, the newly formed shell was clearly more rigid and stronger than it was before.

Elsa could feel a dull humming, or was it a buzzing, from the other side of the shell. The sound was menacing, laced with malicious intent, despite the benign nature of the sound. Elsa assumed that the sound came from what ever had made Anna faint, the girl that was in front of her had abruptly fell shortly after reaching the corner of the street, Elsa dashed forward to catch the girl as she speed towards the ground. Just before the white veil descended upon them, Elsa glanced up to see a surreal sight that betrayed her very tight grasp on reality. In the instant before the wall of white solidified, Elsa was starring at the broken silhouette of a man who looked more like a dusted shadow, than a solid human; its right arm – or what should have been its right arm – resembling a lance painted as black as death. The incorporeal body of the creature felt like a void that threatened to swallow you hole if you gazed at it for too long. Instantly, Elsa was reminded of Anna's description of the black creature that had nearly killed her two years ago, rage and horror filled her gut in tandem. She wanted nothing more than to freeze the creature where it stood and slowly and painfully kill it for what it had done to Anna. But at the same time, she remember that this creature very well may have killed an entire kingdom in a single night, no doubt it was adept at handling itself in combat. Relieved that someone, or something, had come between them and that demon, Elsa silently thanked whoever was the creator of this white ice.

* * *

><p><em>See the shape.<em>

_Form the bonds._

_Strengthen the whole._

_Alone they are weak, together they are strong!_

The ingrained mantra, repeating in loop at the back of the white stranger's mind persisted endlessly. Never allowing him to forget how to command the ice.

The white stranger could feel the dull vibrations in the air, the innumerable building blocks that congregate around him in the form of a dense mist hummed silently. The chill of the nightly air made it easier to construct the instruments he needed to carry out his will. Luckily, his adversary was distracted with the reinforced shell that he had altered at the last minute; a quick decision that proved to be a wise choice given the force carried by the black demon's strike. The white one was standing on a nearby roof top after having slipped by the demon while it was preoccupied; he was looking down upon the dark creature as it's tantalizing droplets of black swirl and hummed in anger and frustration. The man in white was surprised that the seemingly mindless creature recognized the girl at the end of the street. Surely he had killed the one that nearly suffocated her two years ago.

_Well I guess that confirms my suspicions, a hive mind. That explains why my same old tricks haven't been working._

Planning to strike the demon down while it was distracted, the man in white willed the mist around him into a tool befitting for the task. The cool mist condensed and solidified in his hands, forming a crystalline spear of ice, the surface slightly opaque with a subtle tint of white. The process was silent, but nonetheless the demon rears its attention to his white-cloaked adversary, now holding a nearly clear pike of ice, the demon is just as in tune with the movements of their subatomic environment as the man in white, only difference being that the demon cannot bend the mist to it's will. Deciding to strike before the formless monstrosity can move, the man in white hurls the spear at the chest of its shadowy target. The black form does not even flinch, the black beads that make up its form shift in unison, creating an opening in it's non-existent body for the spear to pass through, and it does. Just before the spear had completely slipped through the shadowy silhouette, a stray droplet of black grazes the spear. In an instant the bead is encased in a jagged tomb of ice and frost, the tips of the new protrusion from the spear grazed additional black droplets, and in turn those were incased in ice. Thus initiating a cascade of ice that rippled through the chest of the black demon. The rest of the black beads that had yet to be frozen immediately dispersed, and so too did the demon's form. The scattered droplets of darkness congregated some feet away back into the form it took previously, missing a small but noticeable quantity of black droplets. The beads that had been separated from the whole where imprisoned in jagged cages of ice sprouting from the spear that had lodged itself in the wall behind where the demon was previously standing.

_Tch. Should've know that wouldn't have gotten the whole thing._

While the man in white stood on the roof, contemplating his next move, the black mass returned to the spear, holding a ghostly hand before the encased beads. The ice began to fracture as the beads vibrated and shook within their frozen cages; too late to stop it, the man in white looked on in annoyance as he watched his hard work shatter when the spear finally broke from the intense internal vibrations. The freed beads swarmed into the black mass, returning it's makeshift appearance to completion once more.

_Looks like I'll have to put a bit more effort into this…_

The man in white called upon the mists, bringing in a large volume of vapor. He began condensing the gaseous liquid around his right arm, forming layer upon layer of ice over his own skin. From the tips of his fingers grew drawn out jagged yet smooth icicles, the points aligning with the distal phalanx of each finger. The ice swept up his arm, stopping just above the elbow. Along the arm grew overlapping layers of hexagonal scales of ice formed into a second skin not unlike the scales of a dragon. At the tip of the elbow another icicle grew, longer and wider than the rest, this one in alignment with strangers forearm. The man in white's arm, which was once the hand of a mortal, became the hand of a demon, a demon with dominion over ice. The ice encasing his skin was not the same ice that he had conjured before, no this ice was far purer and was infused with more power. The normally opaque ice was instead solid white. The mist seemed to swirl around the hand awaiting commands; this gauntlet of ice acted as an amplifier, giving the man in white greater control over ice, allowing him to form complex constructs quickly and with ease. The white stranger peered down at the Black demon lying in wait.

_I'll have to get closer if I'm gonna any chance of freezing the whole damn thing at once._

Without warning, the white stranger lunged off the roof and landed, hard, onto the street below – he would have seriously injured himself has he not created a bed of slightly compressed snow on the ground to cushion his fall. The man in white raised his icy white hand, with his index and middle digit extended in unison towards the black demon. Using the ice on his arm as a medium to better control the mist around him, he formed and began constructing a long, sharp hexagonal pyramid just ahead of his extended digits. The point of the pyramid was pointed directly at the demon; just before initiating his assault, the man in white dropped the temperature of the projectile before him to the closest he could get to absolute zero and at the same time willed the amount of the water vapor in the area around his target to grow extremely dense. This combination of increased water vapor density and extremely chilled ice resulted in the phenomenon that occurred before with the spear, the only difference being that the projectile this time around was much smaller and could be constructed and fired in more rapid succession.

As if catching onto what its white adversary had planned, the black mass began expanding, abandoning its attempts to resemble human. The black beads began to swirl with renewed vigor, twisting and spinning around and around the ever-expanding mass. Yet as the growing bubble of darkness continued to expand the density of beads remained constant. Finally, the dark mass ceased its growing and remained stationary as its black droplets swirled and shimmered around, like thousands of black lifeless moons orbiting a planet that was doomed to never bask in the warmth of the sun again.

The man in white stood there, poised to attack, all the while analyzing the new form of his adversary. Suddenly, realization dawned on him,

_Shit!_

Immediately, the white stranger fired off his prepared projectile, quickly constructing and firing off two additional shards of ice. As the speeding projectiles closed in on their target the black mass recoiled away from the incoming shards of ice. In the midst of its unorganized movement, the numerous black beads were separated into three individual groups. These three formless, smaller, irregular masses easily dodged the incoming shard; upon returning to the ground the three masses did not move to reconnect into one body, instead each blob of congregated beads formed into three separate incorporeal bodies, each identical to the original.

_Well, shit. This is what I get for hesitating, now it's three on one._

Berating himself for his lack of action when it really mattered, the man in white began surveying his surroundings in search of a better location to carry out this fight. If the fight were to be fought here, in the cramped town, the three new demons would quickly overpower him with their speed and maneuverability and put an end to this long-winded skirmish.

_Damn it looks like the only other place to duke it out is in the bay. But it's too far away! _

With indecision plaguing his thoughts, the demons saw a momentary opening and advanced a step, in unison.

_**Fuck, make a decision! Either lure them away to the bay, or fight them here and die! Choose damnit!**_

_But if I stray too far from this place the shell protecting those two girls will vanish, what's to stop one of them from staying to kill them?_

_**Then quit whining and do something about it! You only need to incapacitate them for a minute or so to get those girls to safety. Just crush the bastards!**_

_Fine._

Summoning every molecule of water vapor in the vicinity, the man in white concentrated on the three targets before him; each shimmering more than usual thanks to the heat wave emanating from them-

_Wait … "heat wave"? … Those clever bastards … they're vibrating every black bead in their bodies to generate heat._

Switching tactics, the man in white redirected his target from the demons to a pocket of air directly above each of the three demons.

_You think you're all clever, but your tactic will only help me achieve my goal._

Approximately, 20 feet above each of the black creatures, the mists under the white stranger's command condensed and solidified. Out of thin air formed three, seven feet wide and seven feet tall, hexagonal prisms of solid ice. As one last smirk of success flashed across his face, the white stranger raised his ice-encased hand and brought it back down, with the pillars in tow, with all his might.

* * *

><p>A resounding boom shook the ground beneath Elsa, with Anna's head in her lap. The sudden sound and shockwave startled the young sleeping girl, causing her to bolt upright. Straight into the bent down head of her beloved, who was covering the younger girl to protect her from any panels of ice that might have fallen from the tremor, of course none did. However, the structural integrity of the dome could do little to brace the two girls from butting heads.<p>

Both girls grabbed their foreheads, the point of impact, and breathed in sharply as pain bloomed across their craniums.

"Ow. A little warning next time Anna!"

"Well, why were to leaning over me?" Anna whined, when a mischievous smile perched upon her lips, "were trying to sneak a kiss from me in my sleep?"

"A-a k-kiss?! No … Anna … God, no!" Elsa exclaimed, scrambling to find a believable excuse that didn't leave her looking like a pervert, her ramblings ceased when she saw hurt bloom across Anna' face.

"Oh, ok. Just checking." Anna said lifelessly, hurt and disappointment evident in her lethargic eyes. Elsa wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

"_I would much rather kiss you when you were awake_" mumbled Elsa in a voice so soft Anna nearly missed it.

Before the two enjoy a mutual blush between them, the ice surrounding them began to fracture, a large crack forming on one side, outside air flooding into the previously quarantined space. Alarmed, Elsa immediately stood, placing herself between the still kneeling Anna and the origin of the fracture; ready to freeze anything that threatened her beloved.

Suddenly the iced dome crumbled and was blown away, only to evaporate a short ways away. Elsa, with her magic at the ready threw a bolt of power at the unidentifiable figure in the mist. The bolt of light blue power was eradicated when a icy demonic hand of white swatted it from the air. The owner of the hand, stepped forward with an annoyed look on his face as he glared down at the girl standing before him, he was a decent height taller than her.

"Is this how you Arendellians were taught to show gratitude? By firing off a bolt of ice at them?!" The man donned in white bellowed at the shocked girl in a half-annoyed-half-ridiculing voice, as he poked her in the clavicle with his demonic icy hand.

Elsa, glancing at his pure white hand encased in ice, then again at the man himself; she felt an unimaginable surge of power pulsate around the stranger. Elsa, at a loss for words could only gape at the man before her, she had so many questions but lacked the self-control to slow and organizer her thoughts.

"Elsa! Who is this?!" Exclaimed a confused, and slightly jealous, red head from behind Elsa.

"As much as I would love to do introductions for this impromptu meet and greet, we are rather pressed for time." Answered the man in white, while glancing back at the three heated demons currently pinned under large blocks of ice. The heat generated from their intense vibrating beads were melting the ice, and then causing the newly formed water to evaporate.

"I guess those idiots don't know about evaporative cooling, huh."

"Evaporating-what?" asked the girls in unison, Elsa asking out of curiosity about ice powers and Anna asking out of general confusion.

"Never mind, I'll explain some other time. For now, you two need to return to the castle."

"We would love to, but we're lost. We had been walking for an hour leading up to stumbling upon … _this_" Elsa gestured with her hand to both the man and the demons under the slowly melting blocks of ice.

"Yeah, guess that's my bad … I suppose its safe enough to dispel this maze now." With an icy snap of his demonic gauntlet encased fingers, the building layered in ice across the street vanished. The ice had been frozen to look like it was covering a building, when in fact it was covering the street. A short ways down the now uncovered street, Elsa and Anna could see a group of royal soldiers with lamps searching the streets for their missing Princesses.

Before the two relieved princess could leave, the man in white grabbed Elsa's wrist, gently albeit forcefully. Anna who was attached to Elsa's opposite arm was swung around at the sudden lack of movement, suffering a minor case of whiplash.

"You two are to immediately go to the castle, and close the gates behind you. You should be safe in there for now." Said the man warningly.

The two girls, not wanting to debate with the man when nightmarish monsters were so close, nodded in agreement before dashing after the search party that was moving back to the castle to recruit more guards for the search.

* * *

><p>Turning back to the three incorporeal creatures that where fighting an uphill battle by trying to melt the large blocks of ice that had crushed them, the man took a moment to gather his strength. Repeating the process again, the man condensed all of the surrounding mist around his still bare left hand. This time around the procedure was easier and less demanding due to the amplifier that already resided on his right arm. Dispersing the left over mist, the man in white, now with both arms encased in ice, focused his attention on the alive and kicking demons of black before him.<p>

Gathering his strength a third time, the man raised both hands to the three, still pinned, demons that lay under heavy pillars of ice. The temperature of the remaining solid pillar dropped steeply, the ice that was melting from the extreme heat radiating from the superheated beads began to freeze once more. However, the only water that would remain in its solid state was that which was furthest from the demons. The results were hollow cages of ice with a swarming black core in each, in between the core and the surface, varying degrees of warming and cooling waters. It was a struggle to continuously apply reverse thermodynamics between the ice and surrounding water vapor, to keep the ice from melting from the steadily rising temperature in the core. Before the last of the icy layers of the white stranger's cages could rupture, the stranger willed the ice to rise and tossed them in the direction of the Arendelle bay.

Exhausted by the monumental task he had just performed, the man in white collapsed to one knee.

_**You're not done just yet! Get up and finish the job! If you don't this entire kingdom will end up just like Stellaris!**_

To tired to engage in a mental debate with himself, the man in white rose to his feet. Looking out towards the bay, he trotted to a street that gave him a clear line of sight to the immense body of water that connected to the ocean. Crouching forward and angling the soles of his feet upwards at a forty-five degree angle from the ground, the man in white prepared to exploit one of his favorite properties of ice.

* * *

><p>Once the Princess couple had been located, they immediately rushed to into the castle, ordering the royal guards who escorted them back to close and lock the gates at once. Puzzled, but not about to question authority, the guards secured the gates to the castle and raised the alarm throughout the kingdom. Citizens who were still up and about this late at night scrambled home to lock their doors and secure their windows.<p>

The King and Queen of Arendelle rushed to the Anna's room, after having been woken by the alarm and being informed of the two princess's location. The King and Queen threw open the door, to see their daughter and her betrothed safe and sound … looking out the window into the bay.

Anna's room had a beautiful view of the bay with no obstructions and no blind spots. From this one location you could see the bay in it entirety. This is where they waited to catch a glimpse of the mysterious man in white.

They did not have to wait long before that saw a white silhouette fly across the sky in a wide arc spanning several thousand meters, originating somewhere in the city and destined to land in the middle of the bay. The task was no doubt super human, Elsa wondered how he managed to pull that off with ice magic, yet another question to add to the building pile of questions she _would_ get answers to.

As the glowing white silhouette barreled towards the unforgiving surface of the quiet bay, a white jagged arm shot out aiming at the landing destination. Beneath the hand of the man in white, the water of the bay froze solid, ice reaching down several feet, and then the first foot of ice melted again, only to refreeze into a fluffier form, snow. The powdery cushion served as a natural shock absorber as the hurtling white figure crashed back down to earth, his temporary release from the shackles of gravity had come to an end. The figure ungracefully tumbled through the snow in his attempts to slow his own speed, after several moments of flailing the white figure had finally come to a stop. Rising from the powdery white fluff, the white figure waved an arm and the snow behind him evaporated into steam, cooling and settling into a mist that slowly grew in size around the figure. For several moments the figure stood stationary, scanning the rest of the unfrozen bay. A several meters away from the white figure, pieces of an icy shell could be seen floating in the water, nearly completely melted in the warm bay waters, however the previous captives of said shells were nowhere to be seen.

Convinced that the threat has passed, the figure turns his back to the open waters and starts to head back towards dry land, conjuring an elegant ice bridge spanning from his icy island to the docks. About to step onto the bridge, the pure white figure turns back to the water to check the bay once more before setting off back to the dock. Deducting that the coast is clear, he turns for the last time back to land.

Suddenly a back tendril shot out from the water with such ferocity, that the ejected water formed large waves that crashed onto the docks, severely damaging many of the ships sleeping there. The black tendril, thirsting for blood barreled down at the lone white figure that had but a moment to react before the hand of death lunged for his heart. The impact instantly shattered the icy island, sending both victim and attacker back below the surface of the water.


	4. Chapter 4

Just to be safe:

I do not claim to own any characters that blond to Disney.

I would like to edit my previous statement about the Magic:Science ratio in this story. I suppose a better ratio would be about 30% magic, 10% miracle, and 60% science.

Also, i realized too late that the last chapter was missing the cruelty and ruthlessness that i usually associated with the black monster. I instead made it appear harmless and observant, always failing to act and strike when the opportunity arose. So i fixed that in this chapter, its a bit more gruesome and dark. I had a version of this chapter that got really down and dirty in the disgusting anatomy of various severe injuries, but i elected to keep it to a mildly gruesome minimum.

One last thing, I know it may seem backwards, but i really only have time to write these "chapters" during the week. Mainly between sunday night and wednesday night. So I'll only be posting additional chapters on those days, and maybe on thursdays. My weekends are kinda busy, so i don't really get the opportunity to write then. I may be altering this chapter in the days to come, in the event that I messed up a continuity aspect for future chapters.

Lastly, enjoy. Even though i know few will.

* * *

><p>White Ice and Black Blood: Chapter 4<p>

There was water everywhere: in his eyes, in his nose, in his ears, in his mouth, in his lungs. The water was dark, like the void. No light would ever shine here, not in the murky depths of the bay. A throbbing pain pulsated in his shoulder, each pulse spewing warmth into the water; warmth that would grace his frigid skin for a moment before being whisked away by the infinite blackness that surrounded him.

His consciousness was slipping into an eternal slumber of warmth and peace, only to be wrought back from the embrace of death by the pulse of pain erupting from his shoulder. Flickers of light flashed across his shut eyelids. Memories of the past streamed by in broken fragments; a stroke of fear and self-loathing followed by the warmth of acceptance; the struggle against insurmountable odds, and the sweet relief of victory. The blessing of bliss shortly followed by the earth shattering pressure of loss and turmoil, soon these feelings of depression morph into ones of rage and storming anger. The rage fueled determination slamming against yet another insurmountable wall, the acceptance of the impossible and the ever-growing determination to find a way to bring about peace, both to the land and those that no longer breathe.

His eyes shoot open, against the crushing pressure of the water around him. The pressure builds around his chest, attempting to crush the last bubble of air that resides in his lungs. There is a swirling beast above him, preventing him from rising back to the surface; it is determined to drown the dying white figure. It would enjoy nothing more that to tear him limb from limb, and watch the life drain from his frozen body as the red sustenance of his life mixes with the unforgiving water around him. But it would not; it was determined to see the painful, drawn out end of its long time foe. It would watch as the light left his eyes, and his body grew rigid as the hand of death passed over him. Then as a last testament to its ferocity it would rip his head from his body and display it on a pike of darkness to the cowering citizens of Arendelle as a promise for death.

His skin was numb; the ice affixed to his arms was taking its toll. As his scorched lungs demanded air, the man used the cold, unfogiving water around him. Freezing the surrounding water into a thick cocoon, the man started to rise. The rigid molecules of the ice are less densely packed than the water around him, allowing for him to gravitate to the surface. But the swirling wall above him would not permit his passage, pinning him in his newly formed cocoon to the bay floor. Frustrated by the passive actions of the black wall, the man scraped together the last bits of his strength in one last attempt at freedom, before he would surrender himself to deaths warm embrace.

Willing the molecules of water around him to vibrate intensely, the surrounding water was transformed into super heated steam; the frigid water began to boil. In an attempt to distract the black wall that encased him above, the man cast off the cocoon, reformed it again, this time with him outside of its thick walls. The super heated steam and water began expanding, surging for the surface to escape into a less pressurized environment that was the atmosphere; along with its single exposed passenger. The heat from the steam, although slightly cooled by the icy water, was scorching the man's skin and melting the ice that encased his arms. His skin and lungs burning in tandem, one from the extreme heat that surrounded it, another from the icy water that filled them. The black wall, in the confusion of the eruption of steam and boiling water so far from the water's surface, focused its attention to the hidden cocoon within the bubbling water. Surging forth to foil its adversaries plan, it pinned the cocoon to the bay floor once more. In an effort to speed to demise of its adversary, the black mass applied increased pressure to the cocoon. The amplified force being applied to the shell, shortly resulted in the hollow sphere cracking and shattering into pieces, its occupant was nowhere to be found. The black mass searched the water with frantic, jerking movements; its only method of detecting the man in the pitch darkness of the bay floor was by way of touch. Suddenly, realization dawned on the darkness, turning its attention to the surface of the water; it could see the wobbling light of the moon overhead bouncing brilliantly off of the white coat of its adversary.

* * *

><p>With relief but an arm's reach away, the man in white flailed in the water in the attempts to reach the surface of the bay. His lungs were on the brink of collapsing; his stinging shoulder had long since gone numb with pain. He was convinced that everything from the right shoulder down had shriveled up and broken off from the rest of his body. His heart thumped in his chest, pumping recycled blood in the attempt to deliver non-existent oxygen to the body. His mind and body were reaching their breaking points. He could no longer perceive time, every second felt like and eternity; heartbeats were separated by eons of silence.<p>

Finally, as his head broke through the surface of the water, his lungs instantly filled with frigid, crisp air that burned his windpipe and lungs, but this kind of burn was welcomed with open arms. The man slowly paddled to a solid fragment that once belonged to his island of ice before it was shattered from the impact of the massive black tendril. Looking around, the man's eyes saw a city bathed in red; his eyes had numerous burst capillaries in them from the crushing pressure at the bottom of the bay. His eyes were now blood shot, while continuously shedding steady blood red tears. The red ink that fell from his eyes was quickly staining his soaked white coat a dull pink. The shoulder of the coat was already stained a deep crimson red, the fringes of the cloth started to solidify as the blood within began coagulating in the crisp night air. Looking down at the ragged shreds that remained of his shoulder, the man in white winced as he brought a numb hand up to feel the full extent of the damage. His left hand, which was once coated in a white ice that pulsed with power, was now bare – the ice having melted in the boiling bay water - and as black as the sky. The skin had been fused with the icy gauntlet, but due to the prolonged expose to the frigid frost that encased it, the inner layers of the skin had frozen over, resulting in a severe case of frostbite that covered the arm from the fingers to the elbow. The right arm, which had been encased in the ice for a greater period of time, was in far worse condition. The skin was as black a death; it was beginning to swell, as the liquid from the burst blood vessels spilled into the tissue nearby. The arm's muscles were shredded from the frost that permeated through the skin, down into the deeper tissue below. His right arm would take months to heal, and was in no condition to move anytime soon. His left arm, while in hardly better condition had not experienced nearly as much damage to the muscles and could still be commanded to move by the mind. The man was momentarily alarmed when his fingers met the crater in his shoulder; he could feel nothing, neither the wetness of blood nor the pulsing of the exposed veins below his fingers. He soon realized that the error in his senses was not from the wound, but from his hand. While the arm could still be moved and directed as its owner saw fit, the nerves in the skin had been destroyed by the merciless frost. He had lost all feeling in his arm, thus making a physical inspection of the shoulder impossible. Forgoing any further attempts to gauge the extent of the wound, the man waved a numb hand over the wound, freezing the broken blood vessels, stopping the profusion of any more blood. While this did delay the danger of bleeding out, this was only a makeshift solution. Prolonged exposure to the frost in the wound would harm the surviving skin more than it would help the whole.

With his wound patched up temporarily the man peered out over the bay. The man stiffened when he sensed a shifting of the water just below his feet. He leaped backwards suddenly, barely dodging the black tendril that shot through the ice with deadly intent. He stumbled as his feet neared the edge of the ice fragment, tipping the waning block of ice in the warm bay water. He stumbled backwards; threatening to fall into the well of darkness once more, moments before his back hit the water he froze the surface of the bay into a layer of ice just thick enough to support his weight. The man began backpedaling across the newly formed ice as tendrils of black death shot out where he was a moment ago. The flustered man struggled to stay ahead of the dark tendrils, his numb and soaked legs grew heavy with every kick against the slippery ice beneath him, his one good hand slipping repeatedly as it passed over the ice in attempts to move the body backwards, his rear threatening to be rubbed raw across the frigid ice. Finally reaching the limit of his endurance, the man turned over and leaped across the ice, freezing the water below his landing destination with much more depth and thickness. The block of ice that jutted from the water held solid as another black tendril struck its underside. The impact of the tendril did not do much damage to the block of ice, nor did it come close to pircing the exhausted white figure resting atop it.

* * *

><p>The man was exhausted, no longer able to gather the strength to lift his tired and soaked limbs. He contemplated surrendering himself to the harbinger of death that so persistently pursued his life, only the thoughts of <em>him<em> were able to steer his mind back to the instinct to survive. The bay was quiet; the man thought that perhaps the darkness had given up, surrendering to its own exhaustion. Sadly, fate would not allow for such an unnatural convenience.

A black spire shot out from the water, stretching high into the air. Its height dwarfed the castle of Arendelle, coming close to the elevation of the mountain that loomed over the kingdom. The spire was not only tall, but wide as well. Its base spanned nearly 100 feet, as the spire raised into the atmosphere the diameter shrunk until the tip, forming an impossibly tall spike that challenged the very gods of the heavens. Upon closer inspection the matter that makes up the spire was shifting and pulsating, almost like a human heart. The surface of the spire was shimmering, its contents swirling in incoherent orbits around its core.

Realization dawned on the man as he stared at the majestic black spire, this embodiment of architecture that defied mortal means was non-other than his adversary.

As if sensing the man's apprehension the black spire flinched and collapsed, the tip disintegrating into small black droplets of water, falling from the skies like cursed rain from an enraged god. The cascade continued down the spire until it reached the base. The beads of black water halted just before hitting the water that surrounded the base, floating just above the surface of the bay. Then, as if receiving orders from a collective mind, the beads retreated into the still solid base of the spire. The spire's base began morphing, distorting its once majestic form into an incoherent blob of darkness, the pulsating mass was losing its rigid structure and becoming more ethereal. The black mass began pulsating and swirling with renewed vigor, any traces of the once solid spire, long lost in a buzzing colony of pitch-black bees. Out from the non-existent surface of the swirling mass, extended tendrils of darkness, each with hardened black spear tips. Each one carried the blood lust of a crazed murderer out for the blood of its innocent victim. Each tip of blackness trained on one target of blood stained white.

His instincts were screaming at him:

_RUN AWAY! DEATH APPROACHES!_

But he had long since learned to ignore his cowardly instincts.

The moment before the sickle of death fell on the man in white, time grew still. The man stood at the ready, prepared to freeze the tendrils, or deflect those that he could not freeze solid in time. The black void prepped to skewer its adversary where he stood; this time around it would kill the man on the spot quickly and decisively, rather than slowly and painfully.

A broken and battered ship at the docks suddenly collapsed, finally giving into the woes of gravity, unable to sustain its shape with a compromised hull. The broken fragments of wood and metal that crashed into the bay below was the signal that thawed time.

The black mass and the white figure moved simultaneously, spears of darkness raced forth to catch the white figure. An angled wall that solidified before the man in white deflected one of the dark tendrils; another arm of darkness was frozen solid by a bolt of icy power that shot from the man's hand. Yet another was met by a rising wall of water that erupted from the bay beneath. The man in white, surrendering to his exhaustion, elected to utilize a less stressful weapon. While ice was the perfect tool for crafting weapons of war, it was an extremely demanding task to continue to construct weapons that could withstand the strength of the creature of darkness. Crafting such weapons and walls of ice required a great deal of focus and effort, both of which he was running out of in his weakened state. So he decided to wield a less rigid weapon, the water around him. While it is easier to will the movement of water around, the consequences are proportional to the increase in convenience. To move water takes but a fraction of the focus and concentration than is does to will the formation of ice, but the trade off is that water is less capable of warding off attacks or dealing fatal damage. However, in his current state it was either completely exhaust himself by molding ice for another minute or so, or switch to water and extend his endurance by several minutes. And so he chose to retract his influence from the water in the surrounding air, to the water below his feet.

The water that we willed to raise did little to impede the surging tendril of black. The dark spear easily pierced through the wall of water, lunging at the spot of the man in white, but he had already moved. He knew that the water would not be able to deter the black spear, so he used it as a distraction, breaking line of sight with the main body of the creature, and used the wall of water to hide his retreat. However, once the black tendril broke through to the other side of the water, visual confirmation was reestablished. The main body of the black mass surged forth, crashing through the wall of water that surrounded the white figure. Without hesitation, a barrage of black spears shot firth from the looming shadow. The man in white desperately evaded as many as he could, deflected with water those he could not dodge, and froze those he could not deflect. However, the sheer number of the black spears exceeded the amount he could handle. Spears of darkness grazed his body, etching deep cuts and gashes into his skin, one grazed his immobile right arm resulting in a fresh river of red flowing down his blackened flesh. The contrast between the dull blackness of death, and the vibrant red river of life was not unlike the image of the creature that had bathed in the blood of the long since deceased Queen of Stellaris. The barrage continued, growing not only in intensity but I accuracy. The black mass started aiming for the man's vitals: his neck, heart, lungs, essential organs, and major arteries. Its thirst for the surging flow of red liquid in the man's veins grew into an obsession in a matter of seconds.

* * *

><p>The beginning of the end commenced when a spear of darkness pierced the man in his upper right thigh, damaging his femoral artery. The spear disintegrated moments later to allow for the blood to flow out of the wound with no restriction. Profuse amounts of blood began pouring out of the mortal wound; the man quickly waved his last mobile hand over the wound, freezing the blood into a solid jagged sculpture of vibrant red ice, and still the barrage continued. With his leg now pierced, he lost all hope of dodging the spears of darkness that were barreling down on him. Instead he focused on deflecting those aimed at his vitals, or freezing those that would end his life immediately. But the odds were against him; he could not win against a creature of eternal endurance, not when his own condition was so grim. Another black pike buried itself into the still fresh wound on his right shoulder; pain so extreme erupted in his shoulder that he nearly blacked out. The momentary lapse in movement spelled disaster for the man in white. Another black spear was thrust through his arm raised in defense, piercing his forearm and continuing through to sink deep into the center of his chest. Countless other spikes of darkness pierced his body in the next instant. Leaving him looking like a bloodied porcupine from hell. The spears of black remained for an instant before dispersing to return to the main body. The man in white was in tatters, blood pouring from his innumerable stabs and cuts. The blood flowed down his trembling legs and began to pool and freeze on the ice below, as the puddle of red expanded the edges reached the water line, leaking into the bay, turning the water a deep crimson red. As a final decisive blow to the still standing man before it, the creature swung back a solidified arm of black beads in preparation to strike the man. The entire creature twisted and spun, swinging the arm at speeds that defied human cognition, straight into the bloodied chest of the man in crimson stained white. The lifeless body careened across the bay in a wide arc, before plummeting to the surface of the bay once more. The speed of the bloodied body caused the barely conscious man to skip across the surface of the water once, twice, and a third time. Pain from the glancing impacts with the unforgiving water's surface jolted the man awake. Inspecting his own body through his senses he arrived at the one inevitable conclusion, the end was near. His pierced lungs burned, he could not catch his breath, as his left lung filled with air, the air leaked into his chest cavity, resulting in the collapse of one of his lungs. His right leg, which had been stabbed by the spear, had long since grown cold and lifeless, he could no longer feel the limb let alone will it into movement. His bruised, beaten and cut body refused all commands the man gave to it to move, exhaustion engulfed the man one last time before he imagined a soft bed of snow to cushion his fall.<p>

The man landed on a bed of ice that he created at his landing destination, covering it in snow to cushion his impact. His now useless limbs could do nothing to soften the impact. As he skidded across the ice and snow, he eventually slowed to a stop. The man slumped unto the snow, enjoying the soft, comfortable, fluff that embraced him. He would like nothing more than to sleep here and now, forever. The pure white snow was quickly being dyed crimson red, his wounds had yet to lessen in the amount of blood that they poured forth. The man was convinced that his life would end peacefully, bleeding out into the soft, comfortable bed of snow below him, but the ominous buzzing that loomed closer snapped him back to reality. The vast darkness was hovering just above him, its intentions were unmistakable, it meant to crush the man where he lay, giving him his last moment of relaxation in the snow before snuffing out the faint life of his soul.

* * *

><p>His world became dark; the innumerous swirling beads of darkness blocked out the light of the moon. The black void that loomed over head secured a solid tendril around the man in white's throat, squeezing tight enough to cut off the air flow, but not tight enough to crush his windpipe. Although this act was redundant, considering that the man would bleed out in a few short minutes, the creature was determined to see to the end of his mortal enemy. It would do this slowly, relishing in the man's death and enjoying with much delight as the last light of life left his murky pupils. His eyes, already red with blood began pouring forth even more blood than before, as the backed up blood flow to his eyes came across the previously burst capillaries. The liquid spilled over into his mouth, filling it with his blood. This occurrence would normally be the cause of panic for the man if the flow of air were not already halted from his throat. All he could do was sputter the blood pooling in his mouth out at the monster crushing him from above. His heart struggled to pump as the strength to sustain life was quickly being sapped from his body by the void above. The heart, which had previously thumped through the struggles of near death, was now losing its drive; the rhythm slowed to a crawl. As oxygen deprivation claimed his brain, the man could no longer discern reality from imagination.<p>

He saw himself lying on a bed of snow in the heat of summer, all of the people from his past standing above him. Young Princess Anna was peering down at him in wonder and concern to his left; Elsa next to her with an arm around the younger girl, above Princess Elsa spun a crystalline snowflake that glittered in the dazzling sun. The King and Queen of Stellaris stood at his feet, wearing thankful expressions for saving their daughter. Next to the Stellarian Royals stood a faceless pair, standing above him and to the right, one female and one male; their presence had an air of authority over him, but their expressions where indecipherable. The last figure standing above his head was _him_; his savior, his inspiration, his mentor. That one man was solely responsible for his the current him that existed, and he swore to himself that he would avenge that man.

"_I am sorry I failed you…"_ he whispered to his mentor.

"_You did not fail me. If anyone, you have only failed yourself…"_ replied the man standing above him.

The words stung, solidifying his guilt and remorse, giving form to his regrets and sorrows.

"_But remember _, what did I teach you about failure?"_

The man that was lying in the bed of snow had to laugh at himself.

_Even in death you continue to teach me…_

"…_That failure is not the ending of the story, but the beginning." _

"_That's right…" _Answered the mentor, as he reached down for the hand of the man sleeping on the snow.

The man, about to slip into an eternal slumber, lifted his arm and took hold of the other mans hand, gripping it firmly. A blinding light erupted from their grasped palms, as the man fell into the warm embrace of sleep.

The last light of cognition that flittered through the man's mind was the eruption of a light that was on par with the sun, that bathed the world in everlasting light that was both warm and chilling. As the light enveloped the man, he slipped into unconsciousness, looming closer to the eternal sleep he so yearned for.

* * *

><p>The battle that had unfolded before the Royalty of Arendelle had reduced each of them to trembling husks. Elsa and Anna were embracing each other, desperate for the warmth and comfort that they each usually found in the other. With their arms wrapped around the two princesses, the King and Queen both held each other while battling their cowardly instincts to run and hide.<p>

The war that raged between the white figure and the formless creature of blackness was approaching its end. The man in white had been completely swallowed by the black void. The end was inevitable, and the Arendellian royals feared that their deaths would shortly follow once their white savior had passed onto the next life.

The black mass surged once more onto the man's lifeless body, to ensure the ending of his life.

Suddenly a light of the purest white bloomed from the man's body. The void of blackness immediately flinched away from the light. The City of Arendelle, the castle, and even the mountain in the distance was bathed in a white light that delivered both warm and frost to anything that touched the light. The black void jerked and retreated searching for anywhere to escape the unyielding light. The glowing man's body pulsed once, sending a shockwave through the air. When the burst of amplified light hit the black mass it screeched in pain, the beads on its surface evaporated and dispersed. As the shockwave continued through the air it crashed onto the city and the castle, the impact carrying no more force than a gust of wind. The pulses continued, each shaving another layer off of the formless creature now writhing in pain. In its rage, the creature lashed out at the glowing body with a fragmented tendril, the black spear crashed into the light of the body as another pulse radiated out from the man in white. The tendril was instantly disintegrated, each bead was shattered and scattered, resulting in the evaporation of the arm of darkness. As the pulses continued, the looming mass of darkness grew ever smaller, until the final flash of light eradicated the last handful of black beads.

Just before the brilliant white light faded from the world, an ethereal figure of white could be seen standing next to the motionless figure lying in the snow. The figure, looking in the direction of the now deceased creature of darkness, turned back to the man lying in the snow, kneeling down next to him. The wispy figure placed a hand on the sleeping man's chest, pulsing once more and funneling the light into the man's chest. The ethereal figure stood once more, looking up at the shocked royalty that could be seen in a window of the castle, before scattering into the wind; leaving the ragged and torn body of the man in white asleep, but alive in his bed of snow.


	5. Chapter 5

**Just to be safe: I do not claim to own any characters created by Disney**

**Been quite busy these past two weeks, school is tough when multiple exams hit you on consecutive days. Anyways, that's the reason for this extreme delay.**

**Moving on.**

**Pardon my language, but fuck this chapter. **

**Too many things to provide scientific explanations for, so I chose to leave some unexplained at this point in the story. I will explain them in the future.**

**If I said anything that was completely wrong or completely off the mark in any of my explanations, please just alert me of the mistake and I will investigate and make proper changes. Just remember, these explanations are part science and part magic.**

**Didn't know how to end this chapter, so I just winged it.**

**That's all I have to say. So enjoy, even if I know few will.**

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><p>White Ice and Black Blood – Chapter 5<p>

The month that would follow that night, was one filled with conflicting emotions throughout the kingdom of Arendelle. The King and Queen were confused about the arrival of their "savior" whom was described by their daughter as the one who supposedly saved Anna when Stellaris fell. All the while they were thankful for the existence of something to stand between them and the formless shadow that had killed their dear friends. Yet at the same time the Rulers of Arendelle wanted to banish him from the kingdom for leading that _thing_ to their doorstep. Much to the insistence of both their daughter and eventual daughter-in-law the King and Queen did allowed the still unconscious stranger to remain in the castle.

Princess Elsa was filled to the brim with fascinations and wonder towards the stranger, she had so many questions to ask and so many things to thank him for. However at the same time, she feared that if she delved too deep into the world that he lived in, she would be pulled into his struggle; forever losing her now comfortable and blissful life with Anna and her family. This struggle between curiosity and fear plagued Elsa for weeks on end. She wanted to know so many things, but she feared that the answers might come at a cost that she was not ready to pay.

Princess Anna's mind was spinning; she could not make heads or tails about what had transpired. All she knew was that the monster from her nightmares had attacked, and that a strangely familiar white figure had saved her again, but not just her, but the entire kingdom of Arendelle. However, that thought brought forth a notion that filled her with an infuriated confusion. She wondered why this man in white had saved the entire kingdom of Arendelle, when he _only saved her_ two years ago. It angered her to no end that this man had the ability to save her parents and her kingdom back then, but chose to save only her; essentially leaving her parents and kingdom to die and stepping in to help only when her life was threatened. At the same time, she was grateful to him for saving her, but she was also enraged that he only saved her. A storm between anger and gratitude raged on in Anna's heart.

Prince Kristoff, who had been delegated to ordering the troops and raising the alarm that night, was absent during the battle that occurred in the bay. Consequently he could not understand the apprehension that his parents, sister and soon-to-be sister-in-law felt towards the stranger.

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><p>Sometime during the night of the battle, when Prince Kristoff was allocating troops through out the castle and castle wall to better protect the castle's inhabitants, a messenger came from his parents ordering him to send a group of soldiers out to retrieve a man in the bay. At first the request seemed arbitrary but, not wanting to disobey an order from his parents, Prince Kristoff prepared to send out a detail of soldiers to retrieve the stranger from the bay, just to be safe the Prince assigned a military medic to go as well. However, when the soldiers received their orders they hesitated. The soldiers that recieved this retrieval assignment had been stationed in the section of the castle wall that overlooked the bay. Seeing the men hesitate for no apparent reason, the Prince stepped up and set out to fulfill the mission by himself. Not wanting their beloved Prince to wander into danger alone, the detail of soldiers present swallowed their fears and chased after their Prince.<p>

The assignment, which initially seemed to be a simple task, proved to be rather difficult. The man in question was floating on what appeared to be a melting raft of ice in the very center of the bay, the original plan had been to secure a small boat to paddle out to the man to retrieve him; however, when the soldiers accompanying the prince reached the bay they found nearly all of the docked vessels were either severely damaged or totally destroyed – the cause of the destruction known by all except for the prince. Electing to investigate the ravishing of the docks at a later time, Prince Kristoff devoted all his efforts to finding a suitable vessel to use to reach the stranger in the bay. After some time, one of the soldiers located a small row boat that could be used by two people to go out and retrieve the man in the bay. Initially, the Prince planned for him and the medic to set out on the small vessel, but after much insistence from the men under his charge – the reason for their persistent overprotectiveness was unknown to the Prince – a soldier replaced the Prince on the boat with the medic.

After a short while the soldier and medic returned with the man in tow, after having tied the ice raft to their boat. The medic had performed emergency medical treatment on the man's less serious wounds, saying that he did not have the necessary supplies to treat the more severe ones.

The Prince was surprised that the man lying before him was still alive; both of the stranger's arms were bandaged, the medic saying something about frostbite. There was a sickening crater in the man's right shoulder that was black and bloody; numerous punctures that resembled knife wounds were littered across the man's body. A larger wound was imbedded in the man's left thigh, the instrument used to deal such an extreme wound most likely resembled a pike or spear. One of the more disturbing parts of the man's body was his face; his eyes were closed but just below his eyes there were thick streaks of dried blood that extended all the way down to his mouth. The man's lips were coated in another layer of dried blood, with more streaks and dried rivers of red running from the corners of his mouth down his chin and neck, some of the blood appeared to have pooled in a long horizontal indentation that was imbedded in the man's neck, thus accentuating the unnatural mark with the dull crimson shade of dried blood. The man's eyelids themselves were tinted crimson from the blood that resided just under the closed lids.

After seeing the amount of blood that was pouring from the grievous wounds all over the man's body, the soldiers and the Prince carried the stranger back to the castle. The Prince, wanting to see his assignment through to the end, joined the soldiers as they escorted the unconscious man to the infirmary.

When they arrived the King, Queen, and two Princesses were waiting just outside of the infirmary wing. The King and Queen asked the medic from the detail on the man's condition, the medic did not want to lie to the royals and thus stated that the man is severely injured and is unconscious, most likely from blood loss. He also informed the King and Queen that if they did not give him a blood transfusion quickly, that the man could suffer from complications that result from the body being starved of oxygen for too long. Not wanting to delay the treatment any longer, the King and Queen nodded and stepped aside allowing the soldiers to carry the man into the infirmary. The royal family waited there for a short while, hoping that the man would wake up to explain what had happened, but after about an hour a doctor came out saying that the man was in a stable condition but still unconscious. He advised that all of them return to their chambers for some much needed sleep, and suggested that they check back some time tomorrow. The King and Queen needed to discuss their plans with each other, and thus retired to their chambers first, but not before assigning soldiers to guard the infirmary wing with the orders that no one go in or_ out_, without their permission.

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><p>Not wanting to throw their kingdom into chaos, the King and Queen issued a gag order on the events of that night. They did not want to spread information about the fact that they had been attacked by an incorporeal monster in the middle of the night, nor did they want the citizens to know that they would have no way of protecting them. And so, the exact events of that night were restricted to the royal family and the royal guards who had witnessed the incident.<p>

But of course no seal is perfectly airtight, and soon enough rumors began spreading through the citizens. Luckily, the nature of the true story was much harder to believe than the fabricated versions that soon sprang forth on the tongues of the citizens of Arendelle.

The citizens spoke of a magnificent fight that occurred in the bay, between a black dragon and a white knight of ice. The mentions of ice caused many of the citizens to identify the white knight as their very own Princess Elsa, shortly afterwards the story evolved into one where a black dragon that was enamored by the summer sun had captured the poor Princess Anna for her likeness to both the glowing orb and the warm season and the White Knight, Elsa, stepped forth to vanquish the beast to save her beloved.

The story spread like wildfire, and soon became the unofficial love story between the two soon-to-be-wed princesses. Further details were filled in down the road; the dragon was blamed for the destruction of Stellaris and the deaths of the King and Queen of Stellaris, the story also claimed that Elsa saved Anna that night two years ago, but only injured the dragon without killing it, allowing for the dark beast to return two years later to seek revenge and claim the radiant princess again.

The Royals of Arendelle were thankful that the citizens were so obsessed with perpetuating this fairytale, even if one such royal was embarrassed by the implications of the story. Somehow, something that should have stricken fear and terror in the hearts of the citizens had morphed into a story that filled their hearts with warmth.

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><p>At first, the doctors that were reporting on the man's condition to the King and Queen everyday speculated that his right arm would need to be amputated due to the severe case of frostbite that had killed off all of the cells in the limb. However, after a couple of days, the doctors reported seeing accelerated levels of cell regeneration in the arm. Stumped for any other possible explanation, the doctors attributed the man's miraculous regeneration to his powers in ice magic. Speculation surfaced that Elsa was also gifted in this enhanced healing due to her also having ice magic, but those speculations were never tested.<p>

After a week passed, the doctors theorized that if the man's healing continued at the rate it was going, that he would be completely healed in about 2 months, awake in 1. The lack of either a sigh of relief, or a grumble of disapproval from the King or Queen unsettled the doctors more than either response could have. The King and Queen were still indecisive about what to do with the potential risk that was sleeping in their castle. After weeks of contemplation, they finally decided that they would personally interrogate the man and retrieve any information that they needed from the man to help them decide what his fate would be.

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><p>Weeks passed with still no news of the man waking up. Elsa and Anna would often visit the man in the infirmary, much to the disapproval of the King and Queen.<p>

Elsa's list of questions to ask the man, as well as her desire to thank the man for saving Anna, continued to grow as the weeks stretched on. As time passed her worries about being pulled into a war that would cost her the one thing in the world that she could not live without, Anna, grew to terrifying proportions.

Anna's anger at the man for not saving her parents eventually grew into resentment, she had come to hate the man that Elsa dragged her to see almost everyday. She was confused and angry with Elsa too,

_Why do you care so much for him? He let my parent die! He let my entire kingdom die!_

Anna's confusion towards Elsa's fascination with the man grew into jealousy and hurt frustration. In her eyes, Elsa looked like a young girl who was developing her first crush on a boy, the very thought disgusted Anna. She wanted to ask Elsa why she cared so much for the stranger, but she feared that Elsa would confirm her worst fears. Without Elsa, Anna had nothing; she had no home, no family, no one to love or to love her. And the thought that she was losing Elsa, her everything, to the stranger in the infirmary only fueled her resentment for the man further.

Kristoff, who was still in the dark about the events of that night due to the gag order, would often visit the man when he had nothing else to do. Sometimes he would run into Elsa and Anna, making small talk about the stranger in the infirmary. Kristoff often noticed how Anna would cringe in disgust whenever Elsa would mention the stranger, he also noticed the raw resentment that Anna carried in her voice whenever she spoke of the man herself. Anna's blatant hatred for the man puzzled Kristoff, Elsa's ignorance to Anna's demeanor confused him further. He would often ask about what the two of them knew about the stranger, but he would be met with either of the same two answers:

"I don't really know anything about him, but I have so many questions," From Elsa.

Or

"Who cares?" from Anna.

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><p>As the weeks stretched into a month, Kristoff had come to consider the man a friend, even if he had never met the man when he was awake. He would often bring his work to the infirmary to do in the infirmary room to keep the stranger company. Elsa and Anna no longer visited the stranger together; Elsa would come alone every once in a while to spend a few brief moments with Kristoff and the still unconscious stranger. Their conversation would often fall back to a certain red head,<p>

"I don't understand what's happening between us, she feels so distant. She never wants to spend time with me-" Elsa choked out, halting mid sentence when a sob bubbled up through her throat.

"Have you talked to her about this? Staying silent won't a fix thing between you two." Replied Kristoff.

"I want to … I want to return to the happy blissful lives we had before any of this happened-" She gestured to the man sleeping a short distance away.

"-but I'm afraid she'll say she's grown tired of me, that she doesn't want to be with someone who can't even protect her…" Elsa, growing frantic, was bordering on tears as she voiced her worst fears.

"I think-"

"Whatever I did to make her hate me, I wish I could take it back! I wish I could know what I had said so I could apologize!" Screamed Elsa, finally breaking down and crying as her brother braced her.

It pained Kristoff to see his sister suffer like this, but he knew that Anna was suffering just as much. In his daily rounds through the castle, a task he took upon himself to better memorize the layout of the maze like castle in the event of another attack, he would sometimes stumble upon a sobbing red head hidden away in the dark and musty recesses of one of the abandoned wings of the castle. Always whispering the name of her beloved in-between each bout of tears and sobs. He often tried to approach the crying red head, but she would notice his presence and immediately run away, deeper into the abandoned wing. His fear of getting lost would compel him to return to the main castle, and a few hours later he would see a puffy eyed red head slip into the kitchen for something to eat before retiring to her room.

He had no real words of comfort to relay to his sister, only pats on the back and whispers that "everything is going to be okay."

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><p>Dinner, which had always been a family event, slowly degraded into another awkward gathering of people that wanted nothing other than space from those in the room. Elsa and Kristoff's consistency in disobeying their fathers wishes for them to not spend time with the stranger, was straining their usually friendly and loving relationship. Kristoff and the King would often butt heads in an argument over something trivial or inconsequential. Elsa was cold and unresponsive to her father's inquires about how she was spending her days. She was either crying over slowly losing her beloved, practicing her ice magic with no great deal of success, or visiting her brother and the stranger in the infirmary; none of which were answers that would please her father, so rather than lying she elected to remain silent, hoping that her father would see that she did not want to talk about it. Unfortunately, receiving the silent treatment from his daughter only angered the King further, driving him to demand answers from her. When she would eventually speak, she would excuse herself from the table and leave to go to her room, to either cry or fume into an unfortunate pillow.<p>

This family had met hardships before, when their dear friends of Stellaris died, but the lasting effects of that event and this one was far different. This time around, this once happy family was slowly falling apart.

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><p>It would not be until the second week of the second month that the stranger would stir in his eternal slumber. Kristoff was currently present, working on creating a calendar for shifts for the soldiers on duty throughout the day. Kristoff immediately called the doctor when he noticed the stranger's eyes struggling to open. When the doctor and Kristoff returned to the room, they found the man sitting upright in the bed looking around the room in alarm. Upon noticing the arrival of two figures to the room, the man opened his mouth to question them about their identities. But no words came out; instead the sound that struggled out of the man's throat was a dry crackling croak from dehydration. The doctor rushed out of the room to retrieve a canteen of water for the stranger, upon his return he gave the flask to the man and instructed him to take a sip of water. The man eagerly drank from the flask of water, downing the entire container in a few large gulps. The man let out a sigh of satisfaction and licked his dried lips to saturate them. Turning to the doctor the man cleared his throat to test his voice and then he opened his mouth once more,<p>

"Thank you." Said the stranger in a voice horse from lack of use in weeks.

"You are most welcome, now how are you feeling?"

"Not bad, my shoulder and leg are still a bit sensitive, and my neck itches like crazy." Answered the man, reaching up to scratch at the bandages covering his neck with his left hand.

His hand, about to be grabbed by the doctor, was instead swatted away by Kristoff's beefy arm. The stranger's atrophied muscles could not match Kristoff's strength, and the hand fell back to the bed next to him. The stranger squinted at the larger man, who had just slapped him, in his attempts to identify the burly stranger. Realization dawned on him and he smirked.

"I suppose if I tried that same stunt on you, your father would have my head." Chuckled the bandaged stranger

"You must be the beloved Prince Kristoff, right?"

"You are correct, but I believe my father wants your head even without you assaulting me."

"Even after I nearly gave my life to save his daughter and future daughter-in-law?"

"What do you mean by 'save' them? What happened the night I was ordered to retrieve you from the bay?"

"You don't know? I expected nearly every kingdom near and far to know by now."

"No, my father has issued a gag order, no one is allowed to talk about it."

"Ah, a wise move by your father. Can't have the citizens losing their heads about this."

"'Losing their heads' about what?"

"Hmm? Oh you'll hear all about it when I explain myself to your parents."

"I better!"

The slightly agitated Prince stalked off to inform his parents that the stranger had woken up. Stopping with one leg out of the door to turn and look at the stranger.

"I nearly forgot. My name is Prince Kristoff of Arendelle." The prince introduced himself, then looked at the stranger expectantly.

"Thank you Prince _Obvious_, but I already know that. Now run along, I'm sure your parents are just _dying_ to meet me."

The Prince, shocked by his dismissal, turned and left the room; the doctor chuckled quietly. The stranger gazed at the medical personnel with a face of inquiry and slight amusement.

"I don't think anyone has soundly rejected that boy as well as you just did. No one since his father."

The stranger, for lack of a better response, simply shrugged.

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><p>The doctor helped the stranger from the infirmary cot to a wheelchair. After weeks of being unconscious the stranger's muscles had weakened and atrophied, leaving him feeble and unable to walk. As the doctor and patient strode down the halls of the, the stranger inquired about the local gossip from the past month. The story about the dragon and the knight gave the stranger a good laugh, so much so that the numerous bandaged wounds on his diaphragm each were laced with pain that grew in intensity with his laughter. After finally settling down, the doctor and patient found themselves before the door to the throne room where the stranger had been summoned. Bidding the good doctor goodbye, and promising to return to the infirmary for additional check ups, the stranger pushed open the door with his left hand while holding the wheelchair steady with his right. Once enough space had been made available for him to pass through, the stranger gave the wheels one good push, propelling him into the brightly lit room.<p>

On the alter at the head of the room sat the King and Queen, both in their respective thrones. The Prince stood just to the left of the King's throne, the Princess to the right of the Queens throne. Next to Princess Elsa stood Princess Anna, who was emitting a non-too-pleased aura directly at the crippled stranger. The stranger winced at the open hostility from the young girl; he was expecting to see a look of gratitude or wonder, not resentment. That observation held true for the entire Royal family, save for Prince Kristoff who was looking at the stranger with perfectly neutral eyes.

The Prince noticed the stranger's hesitation to approach his family, and nodded to the man to encourage him forwards. The stranger saw the Prince nod to him, and gave his wheelchair one more good push to propel him into the center of the room just in front of the King and Queen, at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the Royal thrones. Silence stretched on, neither party wanting to break the awkward moment first. The stranger took one last look around the room, the King and Queen had adopted their "noble" masks to hide any and all emotions, though the stranger was convinced he saw a flash of fear in their eyes whenever he made a sudden movement; the Prince's mask was far more perfect, most likely because he had no compelling emotions to hide. The Princesses, standing slightly apart, were both looking at him with conflicting emotions showing through their own masks; Elsa was staring straight ahead, almost as if she refused to look anywhere near her betrothed, and she would occasionally glance down at the stranger, her other hidden emotions were indecipherable. Anna was far easier to read, her eyes were filled with resentment whenever her fiery gaze fell upon the crippled man, but her features would soften slightly whenever she glanced at Elsa, only to harden once more in anger when she traced Elsa's eyes to the stranger – even if Elsa truly wasn't looking at the man. The stranger took a deep breath, breaking the silence and freezing the room in anticipation, before speaking in a horse voice to the royal family before him.

"A-hem. It is an honor to meet the Royal Family of Arendelle, and the Royal Princess of Stellaris."

Anna's eyes flared in anger at the mention of her late kingdom, she was about to speak before Elsa silenced her with a glance. Both enjoyed the brief eye contact, even if the circumstances of the interaction were less enjoyable.

"I am King Adgar of Arendelle, this is my beautiful wife and Queen, Idun. These are my children: Prince Kristoff, and Princess Elsa; and my daughter's betrothed, Princess Anna of Stellaris." The King introduced all of those present in a booming and commanding voice. The King, along with the rest of them, then looked at the stranger with expectant gazes, as if waiting for something.

"It is a true honor to meet all of you, I only wish that the circumstances of our meeting were a bit better. But I suppose that it is a blessing that we all survived recent events. Now I am sure you all have many questions for me-" The stranger blew past the usual customs of introducing oneself to the royals.

Rage from being ignored bloomed over the King's face.

"I do not know what kind of society you were born into, but here we are _civil_. And as _civil_ human beings it is essential to introduce yourself to those whom you are speaking to." Spoke the King in a deceptively even tone, venom hidden just below the surface of his voice.

"Ah, right! Forgive me, where are my manners? … Right … a name … hmm …" the stranger stammered out, as if stalling for time to think up a convincing lie.

Before the King could be overcome with agitation, the Queen spoke up in a much gentler voice.

"You do have a name? Don't you?"

"Well yes, I do, but no one since my parents have used it, and that was many years ago. To be frank, I am not very fond of my birth name."

"Then what should we call you?" inquired the Queen.

"I suppose … my old nickname could work, call me Snow."

At the mention of the nickname, the Prince could not stifle a chuckle; but the laughter was extinguished by a sharp gaze from the King.

"Very well, _Snow_. Now that the pleasantries are out of the way let us get down to business."

The stranger, Snow, nodded.

"I'm sure you all have plenty of questions, I will strive answer all of them honestly and to the best of my ability."

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><p>The first question to be asked was by the King. He inquired about the event leading up to the battle in the bay. Snow, along with a few comments from Elsa, successfully managed to recount everything leading up to the battle in the bay. The part that was of most interest to the Princesses was how the fight had started. After all, the two Princesses had stumbled upon the fight midway through. According to Snow, he had been canvasing the kingdom for signs of the creatures in his efforts to prevent a repeat of Stellaris. He stumbled upon the creature in a dark alleyway and immediately formed a sort of ice maze out of the surrounding buildings to keep the monster from escaping, he was unaware that he had accidentally captured to two Princesses as well. All throughout his explanations the King's features were a dynamic canvas of anger and confusion, only the Queen extended thanks to Snow when he mentioned that he saved the two Princesses. Once Snow had finished his recounting the event from that night, the King and Queen's demeanors had softened slightly. The Prince was left flabbergasted, unable to make heads or tails of the tale. The Prince was convinced that the entire story about that night's events were an elaborate and gruesome fabrication, but with the confirmation of certain details by Elsa, the Prince soon realized that this fantastical story was in fact true.<p>

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><p>Anna, aggravated at how Snow was being treated with civility – or that he was not being persecuted for dragging her and Elsa into mortal danger, could no longer stand by in silence.<p>

"So you've explained what happened _that_ night, now explain to _me_ what happened two years ago; explain to _me_ why _I_ was the _only one_ to survive what happened to my Kingdom!" Anna screamed, venom heavily laden with every accentuated word.

Snow gazed back at the fuming red head with apologetic eyes filled with guilt.

"I can understand why you would be angry with me for not saving your parents and for not saving your Kingdom. I have no excuse that would justify my failures to you and the people of Stellaris. I have carried with me the burdens of my failures, my failure to you being one of the heaviest."

Snow hesitated before moving on to answer Anna's question about what happened that night.

"I was tracking down a certain someone-"

"Who?!" interrupted Anna, her patience waning thin in anger.

"…."

"I said 'who'?!"

"A man who I have been _hunting_ for a long time." Snow glanced out over the bay through a window.

"I have been struggling to keep him in check, but I have been failing to do so ever since …"

Snow hesitated, eyes downcast, as if remembering a painful memory. He chose to end that train of thought there and continued with his explanation to Anna.

"Not only have I failed to protect you and your kingdom, but I have failed others as well."

"Stellaris is not the first Kingdom to fall victim to those _things._ If you remember from old history books, though you may not, there was once a great nation that fell to ruin almost overnight. This Kingdom has long since been reduced to mere legend and is only mentioned as an old story. This city had advanced technology for their time, with countless scholars and engineers that were all truly gifted. A characteristic of the citizens of this city, which has been long since forgotten, was that those born within the city limits had a much higher chance of being born with the ability to sense and interact with the atomic world."

Confused by what Snow was talking about, Elsa spoke in the silence of Snow's pause.

"What do you mean when you say that these people could 'sense and interact with the subatomic world'? Does this have something to do with your ice magic?"

"What I was using was not 'ice magic' per say. It would be more accurate to say that I was using magic to manipulate and exploit the properties of the subatomic particles in my direct surroundings. And yes, what you are thinking is correct, many of the citizens of this ancient city had 'powers' like yours and mine."

"How … how many were there?"

"The population of the city was about 10,000; and about 1 in every 5 children born were gifted with 'power.'"

Stunned by the frequency that Snow reported, Elsa reiterated to confirm,

"So your saying that this 'Ancient city' that you're talking about had 2,000 people like you and I in it?"

"Yes, they were truly a force to be reckoned with, neighboring nations were lucky that the city officials believed in prolonging peace for as long as possible. But unfortunately this high rate of 'magical births', as they were called, was the reason that the city was targeted. The city and its citizens were seen as a threat, and thus _he_ sought to destroy it."

"The city itself was considered a feat of engineering genius, for the city floated in isolation in the ocean. Not only was the isolation of this city considered an aspect of beauty, but it was also a strategic advantage to any army that dared to attack it or try to invade it. However, _that man_ had no intention to take control of the city, only to destroy it and its citizens."

Again Snow hesitated before continuing.

"_He_ did not target their defensive walls, or the mainland. No, _he_ targeted the foundation of the city that was keeping it afloat. _He_ sank the poor city of Atlantis into the unforgiving ocean that had supported it up until then."

"Most of the citizens did not even know what was happening to their city in the dark of night. The Ocean that swept across the city killed those that still slept in an instant. Much like the citizens of Atlantis, the citizens of Stellaris did not suffer nor fear their impending death, for death was upon them before they could fear it."

Snow paused; his body was slightly trembling in anger and resentment.

"Those _things_ that killed you parents, that sunk Atlantis are cold, calculating, and ferocious. They move quickly and with deadly accuracy, snuffing out life with no mercy or hesitation. They also mirror _that man_ in their ruthlessness and disregard for human life."

He took a breath, steadying his nerves and returning to the somber figure he was before.

"I must apologize to you, I was not strong enough to take on the force that was sent to eliminate Stellaris, and by the time I realized that they had breached the castle I was too late to save your parents. I barely made it in time to save you, and you paid the price for my inadequacies."

Snow seemed to shrink before the Princess, lowering himself in apology.

"I know that I can never make it up to you, but I had hoped that me burying your parents and the citizens of the Kingdom of Stellaris would help in my penitence. I created that tombstone for your parents out ice that will never melt, so long as I am alive. I realize that these small acts do nothing to alleviate me of my sins, but know that I will strive to do for you and your new family what I failed to do for you in Stellaris."

Determination was hard set in Snow's eyes. He was committed to accomplish this task and was willing to give his life to do so.

Silence once more engulfed the throne room.

When Elsa could no longer be patient, she broke the stifling awkwardness.

"I have many questions for you, mainly about your ice magic."

With a look of confusion, Snow replied, "As I stated before, what I use is not 'ice magic.'"

"Yes, you said that you were using magic to command the subatomic world around you. Explain."

Snow hesitated ad glanced around the room. The King and Queen had adopted their "noble" masks once more, Kristoff was looking on in bemused curiosity, and Anna's blood lust and resentment for the man had dissipated after his apology. Although, no one looked uninterested in his explanation, so he elected to comply, even if he knew that this would be a very long-winded explanation.

"Before I get into the nuances of our … 'ice magic,' I need to establish a base line for what you know about this 'power' of ours."

Elsa nodded, and allowed him to continue.

"Princess, do you know what ice is? From a scientific stand point."

"Ice is the solid phase of water that forms when liquid water falls below a certain temperature."

"Correct, now do you know what ice actually consists of? In terms of molecular composition."

"Ice is the result of molecules of water being solidified in place by the stabilization of the bonds that form between water molecules."

"Very good, I am impressed. Arendelle's scholar are not known for their expertise in the sciences, but you have an extensive knowledge about this topic already. Please continue."

"Thank you, these bonds that form between water molecules are called hydrogen bonds. They are named this because they occur between hydrogen atoms and other electron rich atoms near by. However, in this case the only electron rich atom near by is the oxygen of other water molecules."

"Good, good. Now do you know the conformation of these hydrogen bonds?"

"I am sorry, but I do not."

"No problem, so these water molecules that form these hydrogen bonds are able to partake in 4 hydrogen bonds at once. Thus the shape of the bond angles in the 3rd dimension is one of a tetrahedron, with each of the bonds being about 109 degrees apart in angle. This results in the most stable structure to form within ice to be a cyclic hexagon that consists of 6 molecules of water. However, if you know anything about geometry, and if you were paying attention to what I was saying, you would notice that I said that the bond angles were 109 degrees and that the water molecules formed into hexagons. This is obviously not possible, for a regular hexagon that had all equivalent angles, the angles would all equal 120 degrees, not 109 degrees."

Elsa nodded in agreement. Indeed those two facts were contradictive.

"However, to satisfy both the conformational shape of the molecular bonding structure, and the bond angles, we need to delve further into the 3rd dimension of thinking. The hexagons that form in ice are not flat; the most stable conformation is referred to as 'chair.' This 'chair' conformation refers to the shape where one vertex of the hexagon is angled upwards, and the opposite vertex is angled downwards, and the last two parallel sides are horizontal. This conformation satisfies the 109 degree bond angles and the hexagonal shape of the bonded structure. Also, because a molecule of water only needs to commit 2 hydrogen bonds to a single hexagon of molecules, each molecule of water is able to connect with 2 additional molecules of water, thus allowing of cross-linking to occur between these stable and rigid hexagons, thus stabilizing the relative positions between between hexagons on water molecules and allowing for the formation of extensive and highly stable structures of hydrogen bonded water molecules."

Elsa struggled to absorb and picture the information that was being explained to her. The others were just barely keeping up with Snow's explanations. One certain royal had given up and was standing with her arms crossed in annoyance. Before the Royal family could recover Snow dove into the explanation again.

"Now, a benefit of having a rigid structure such as this is that this structure provides extreme structural integrity, making ice very stable and strong so long as there are plenty of layers of hexagonal hydrogen bonding occurring. If you recall, the ice dome that I constructed around you and Anna during the battle a month ago was initially somewhat stable, but became stronger when I altered the internal and external structure to include as many layers of hydrogen bonded hexagons of water molecules as possible."

"Now moving on to answer your initial question, what _we_ are able to control is not ice, but the molecules of water and the bonds that form between them."

"So rather than saying what we wield is 'ice magic' it would be better to say that we wield 'water molecule magic'?" asked Elsa.

"Well sort of. Our 'power' is not limited to water molecules, in fact we can extend our influence to any atomic particle, the only problem that water is in such abundance everywhere that it is difficult to restrict you focus to anything other than water."

Stunned by this realization, Elsa fell into silence while she contemplated this new tidbit of information.

After a short while of more silence, Elsa elected to contemplate these new revelations later, and strove to pry more information out of the crippled man before her.

"So, if everything that you-we do is based on the predetermined characteristics of water, then explain how you flew across the bay."

Snow smiled in delight, as if he was waiting to be able to explain this accomplishment.

"I am glad you asked, frankly this is one of my favorite properties of water, because if you can master it and exploit it you can accomplish seemingly impossible tasks."

Snow paused to collect himself in his excitement before continuing.

"As we discussed, ice results from the rigid formation of hydrogen bonds between molecules of water, but these bonds also have another characteristic that is important, and that is spacing. When water is in liquid form, the molecules are somewhat densely packed, but when the water freezes, the solidified hydrogen bonds space out the molecules of water, thus making solid water or ice less dense than liquid water, hence why ice floats in water."

"This is where the fun begins, the hydrogen bonds that form, expand the space between the water molecules. Now under natural conditions if you froze a glass of water the level that the water was at initially would be lower that the top of the ice that you would have once the water froze. Naturally this process occurs over time, but if you were able to induce this expansion instantly through 'magical' means you could force liquid water to instantly expand and snap to the expanded state of ice. This instantaneous expansion can provide an intense burst of velocity to anything that was in contact with the surface of the water before it froze. Now, normally the body has the innate property of absorbing sudden impact by mitigating the kinetic energy from the impact across a broad, semi-fluid surface. But by strengthening the hydrogen bonds between water molecules in my own body, but keeping my bodily fluids liquid I am able to cancel out this impact absorbing property of my body, allowing for a greater proportion of the kinetic energy generated by the instant expansion to be converted into kinetic energy that propels my body through the air."

Snow was beaming with pride and excitement over revealing his favorite trick. While Elsa and her family contemplated and struggled to absorb the information than the man was rapidly spitting at them.

Elsa, finally accomplishing some semblance of understanding, nodded in comprehension. Then she voiced another question.

"If we can manipulate any atomic particle, why didn't you manipulate the atoms in the creature that you fought?"

Snow, gazed back at the Princess in shocked awe.

"I was not expecting that kind of question … The simple answer is I cannot interfere with any molecules of water under your influence and you cannot effect any water under my influence."

"Then those monsters are like you and I?"

"… well, yes and no. They are not living things, but yes they are like us in that they have control over atomic particles. The only exception is that they can only manipulate the atoms that are within their bodies. The exact reason for that … I will save for another time, when it is appropriate."

Elsa wanted to press for the full answer, but was silenced when the King spoke up.

"These monsters, that attacked Stellaris, killed my friends and Anna's parents, and nearly stole my daughter and soon-to-be daughter in law-" both princess winced at the mention of the betrothal, both thinking that the other did not wish for it "-from us. What are they?"

Snow paused before answering the King.

"It is difficult to describe those _things_ Your Majesty, for few know anything about I could be considered the only expert on them, I will respectfully decline to explain everything I now in full detail at this time. But I will share with you the basic information that I have acquired over the years."

The King reluctantly nodded, "Continue."

"So far as I can tell those creatures are not living entities, instead it would be more accurate to call them puppets; puppets that are following the orders of a single controlling entity, the puppeteer. That controlling puppeteer is whom I have been searching for many years. So far as I know, this entity blends very well into our society, for it must visit any city before its puppets can ravage the unsuspecting kingdom in the night. Additionally, these puppets appear to have what I call a 'hive mind,' where any information that is received by one puppet is instantly transmitted to every other puppet as if they all share one mind. I presume that this one-shared mind is the mind of the puppeteer. This makes for a troubling situation, where any strategy that I use to kill one puppet will most likely not work on the next because it has learned from the mistakes of the other. Also, the fact that the puppeteer was able to infiltrate Atlantis and Stellaris without raising the alarm means that it is most likely in the form of a human, or is nearly impossible to detect."

"How do we know that you are not the puppeteer?"

Snow flinched at the sudden accusation. he quickly gathered himself and answered.

"If I was the puppeteer, and had mastered this power to the point of being able to command c- … those puppets as it does, I would not be using inferior ice to combat them." Snow snapped back, in agitation over the continual distrust that he was facing.

The argumentative tone that Snow had taken only further angered the King.

"You very well may be the puppeteer, and we could all be falling for your charade. Prove to us that you are not our enemy!" Bellowed the King

"Have I not given you enough proof already? Have you not seen the full extent of my injuries? Would I really have gone far enough to nearly kill myself all to trick you? No. No I would not, nor would I have been able to. Once someone like us-" Snow nodding to Elsa angrily "-falls unconscious then all of our unstable constructs vanish in an instant. Only those that are stable and adhere to the normal laws of nature continue to exist. So tell me, did that creature that attacked your daughters and I look stable? Does it look like it could exist in nature in that state?!"

The King hesitated, dropping his glare to the floor. His rage subsided after a few calming breaths.

"No, but it evaporated when that light from you body hit it. How do we know that that light wasn't a way to cover up the dissolution of that creature from you falling unconscious?"

Snow was shocked. He was staring back at the King, all glimmer of hostility gone, wide-eyed.

"What light?"

"There was a brilliant white light that was radiating out form your body that dissolved the creature. Explain _that_ to us!" The King's frustration was returning from a lack of progress.

Snow was at a loss for words, he frantically searched his mind for his last memory of that night. Eventually he fell back into the memories of his delirium. He remembered shaking hands with _him_ one last time, before their clasped hands erupted in light. Realization and pain bloomed over Snow's features in tandem.

Before Snow could speak, Elsa spoke up.

"I thought I saw a figure in the light, standing next to where you were laying."

Snow, swallowed once before speaking.

"Are you positive that the light was white? And that there was a figure in the light? And that creature _evaporated_ in the light?"

"Yes." answered both the King and Princess in unison. Elsa continued, "the light was pulsing, and every pulse that hit the monster shaved off layers from the formless mass."

Pain and regret bloomed over Snow's face, he took a shallow breath before continuing.

"That light … was once wielded by one of us-" Snow gestured to himself and Princess Elsa "-who was wiser and more powerful than any that came before him. He … saved me … from myself when I was younger. He showed me what this 'power' was, and he transformed my 'curse' into a 'gift.'"

Snow spoke of this man with an endearing tone, love and respect emanating from his words like he was speaking about a dearly loved family member.

"He had completely mastered this power and had learned to control one of the most difficult yet abundant subatomic particles, the photon. He said that it took him years to perfect the technique to control photons and thus control light and electromagnetic radiation. But he said that it was one of the most powerful subatomic particles to command. He raised me like a son, he taught me to control this power and wield it to protect others. He was searching for someone, the same person I am searching for now. We found him once, but we were not prepared …"

Snow's story ended when his throat closed from a sob that threatened to bubble up from deep within his chest.

Seeing the raw emotion of pain and regret reflected in his eyes, the King relaxed slightly. After seeing Snow suffering from such unmistakably honest emotion, any doubt in the King's mind was extinguished. To console the man and to sweep their mutual hostility behind him the King spoke,

"He sounds like an honorable man, I extend our condolences to you for your loss."

"… _thank you_." Snow whispered, with his head still hung in sorrow.

In an attempt to lighten the mood and to change the subject, Prince Kristoff spoke up.

"Looks like we finally found a tutor for Elsa for her magic."

Anna winced at the thought of her beloved spending several hours with the man, alone, to learn about ice magic. Wanting to come up with a reason for why Elsa did not have to spend any more time with Snow, Anna voiced her thoughts to the entire chamber.

"Its not like Elsa really needs lessons, she's plenty good at ice magic to defend herself."

Elsa glanced at Anna with an endearing look,

_Oh Anna,_ "That's not entirely true. I may be able to protect myself to a limited degree, but that's not enough," _if I can't protect you, then it doesn't matter how good you claim that I am._ "I need to improve," _if for no other reason than to protect you._

The entirety of the royal family could almost hear the motivations that Elsa did not voice aloud. All but one caught on to what was driving Elsa to seek a proper tutor.

Snow inserted himself into the conversation once more before Anna could come up with another excuse to keep him and Elsa apart.

"I have no problem passing down what my mentor taught to me, but there are going to be several stipulations that you are not allowed to disobey."

Elsa swallowed once, then nodded.

"Fine by me."

"Good, then first off. From now on you are not allowed to use your powers if I am not around. A safety precaution, I'm sure you don't want to hurt those around you."

Elsa nodded; the fear of hurting those she loved always scared her and often was the origin of most of her nightmares; that and the thought of losing Anna.

"Second, our lessons will be carried out with just the two of us." Snow looked directly at Anna, "no one is allowed to be present."

"Lastly … Elsa, you're forbidden from spending any time with your brother or Anna for the duration of our lessons; as for the reason … well that will remain with me. I will tell you this, the training regiment that my mentor put me through was torturous, but in the end it provided better results than any other training could. You need to be prepared for the worst, and you must comply with my three demands if I am to teach you."

The entire Royal Family was shocked by this outrageous requirement, one more so than the rest. Before Anna could erupt in a fury of obscene words directed at Snow, the King spoke up.

"I assume that there is a reasonable explanation for these stipulations?" The King was more referring to the last one than the other two.

"There are several actually, the first one is just as I said, a safety precaution. The second serves a dual purpose, and the third reinforces the second reason of the second rule." Snow glanced at Anna who was livid yet silent next to Elsa.

Snow noticed the apprehension and scrutiny that he was under for the King and Queen, and thus eleted to let them in on his true intentions.

"If I may request, Prince Kristoff can you come here a moment? I wish for you to convey my intentions to the King so that those that they concern do not hear."

Prince Kristoff nodded, and descended the steps towards Snow. When he reached the wheelchair bound man, Kristoff bent down so that his ear was level with Snow's mouth. Snow whispered a long-winded explanation into the Prince's ear. No one could make out the hushes sounds of unintelligible whispers.

After a few brief moments, the Prince righted himself. A troubled expression was plastered across his face, he glanced at Elsa and Anna and sighed once before returning to his father to relay the message.

The King's features morphed from one of royal indifference to confusion, a slight wince rippled through his face as the Prince repeated Snow's reasons for the rules. When the Prince finished relaying Snow's intentions in their entirety, the King sat there for a solid minute contemplating the implications of what he had just heard.

"I will be honest, I am not fond of your methods." The King looked at Snow with cold eyes, "Are you sure that there is no … easier way?"

"I know that the methodology of these teachings may seem cruel to you, but I believe that Elsa has the capability to endure the training and grow stronger quickly. While I may not be able to lead these teachings with the same efficiency as my metor could, I am able to produce results that are adequate for these teachings. Also, I believe that this kind of training will help with more than just her powers…"

The King and Snow both glanced over at the _two_ Princesses together.

The King sighed, "very well, Elsa the decision is yours, if you wish to learn under him, then you must accept his conditions."

Both Princesses opened their mouths in unison to protest the outrageous regulation set in place by Snow. But a hard glare from the King silenced both of them, even if there was a glint of pain in his eyes. Elsa, conceding to the authority of her father, sighed and nodded,

"Very well, father. Snow, you have my word that I will not use ice magic without you around, and … that I will forgo any interactions with my brother … or Anna." It pained her greatly to speak aloud the last portion of the promise. She chose not to glance at Anna, for fear of the outrage that she would find on her beloved's face, but even more so, she feared that she would find indifference instead of anger. Had she turned her head and shifted her gaze, she would have seen the tears that threatened to spill out of her beloved's eyes. She would have seen Anna's world crumble as she came to the false realization that Elsa would rather spend time with Snow than her, but alas, she did not.

Elsa would undergo any torture if it meant that she could grow stronger to protect what mattered most to her, her family and especially Anna. However, she was still apprehensive about being dragged into Snow's war; but if she wanted strength enough to protect her loved ones she would have to step into that uncertain and dangerous world, a task that she was prepared to do.

* * *

><p>After about another hour of questions and discussions, the night was growing long and the moon was rising outside in the clear black sky.<p>

Snow yawned once and stretched his body, being careful not to reopen any wounds. The King caught sight of the man's fatigue and addressed the entire chambers.

"I think that was more than enough for one day. I am sure that you all are as tired as I am, so let us continue our discussions another time. Snow, you are free to live here for the duration of Elsa's teachings, but for now I think it is best if you return to the infirmary. Tomorrow we request that you join us for breakfast so that you can answer any more questions we have for you."

"Thank you Your Majesty for your hospitality. I am honored at the invitation to breakfast I will be there. Until then, goodnight."

Snow bowed is head to the King and Queen, nodded to the Prince and Princess and winked at the still pouting Stellarian Princess.

* * *

><p>As each of the members of the Royal Family returned to their chambers, Elsa and Anna walked in silence to their adjoined chambers. Elsa wanted to explain to Anna that she was doing all of this for her, to protect her; but she feared that Anna would be uninterested with anything that she did and that Anna would claim that she wanted nothing to do with her anymore. Anna wanted desperately to reach out and grasp the icy, yet soothing, hand of her beloved, but she could not bring herself to do so. Soon after, she noticing that Elsa refused to even glance in her direction, the unintentional blow struck deep and hard. In a flurry confused desperation and fear of not knowing what to do to stop Elsa from leaving her, Anna dashed forward ahead of the stunned blonde. Alarm rising in her throat, Elsa bolted after Anna, but the far more athletic red head reached her door first, ripping it open and slamming it behind her, locking the door. Elsa reached the door a moment later, panting from the sudden physical exertion. Not knowing what else to do, Elsa knocked on the door with shaking limbs.<p>

"Anna? C-can we talk?" Elsa called through the door with an unstable voice that bordered on cracking.

No answer.

"Anna … please let me in, I need to talk to you." Elsa's voice was growing more quiet with each word that passed her lips; a rising sob suppressing her ability to speak.

Again, no answer.

Elsa opened her mouth once more to call out to the red head, who was currently curled up into a ball on her bed sobbing and covering her head with a pillow to muffle her cries and blocking out the desperate pleas of her beloved on the other side of the door, but Elsa's words failed her. She broke down into silent sobbing as she slid down the door she was leaning against. When her knees met the floor, she spun pinning her back against the hard wood of the door, and slid down until she was sitting. There she sat, sobbing, for a good while. She remained until she heard the dull snoring of her beloved that was just out of reach. She sat there, calming herself while listening to the soothing noise of Anna's snores; the sound reminded her of all of the times that they had cuddled up to one another in one bed to fight off the cold of a chilly winter night. Before she could break down into sobs once more, Elsa picker herself up off the floor and shuffled to her own room. She glanced at the door of her beloved's room once more before retiring to her own bed to sleep, for the first time in forever she dreamed of Anna. Not the painful nightmares she had before, but joyous dreams of the past. This one in particular was of the day that her parent had informed her of her betrothal to Anna, the happiest day of her life.

* * *

><p><strong>I know the nickname sucks, I was initially going to go with "Frostbite" but it reminded me too much of Jack Frost and this is a Frozen fiction. If I come up with something that is better than "Snow," or if someone suggests a better nickname, then I will most likely change it.<strong>

**Next chapter will include more misunderstandings between two hurting individuals, brutal and torturous training, and the reasons for Snow's stipulations.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Been a long while since I last posted anything. Kinda rushed this, so it is not well revised.**

**Just to be safe: I do not claim to own any characters created by Disney.**

**This was initially running on, I believe, 15k words, but that was too long, so I ended this chapter part way through and the rest of it will be the next chapter after some tweaking, of course.**

**A little bit of everything in this chapter, including a bit of humor that I accidentally made one night.**

**First attempt at this was too peaceful and "happy," So I waited until my usual dark personality returned before writing this chapter in earnest.**

**That's all I have to say. **

**Enjoy, even if I know few will.**

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><p>White Ice and Black Blood – Chapter 6<p>

The breakfast that followed that stressful night of interrogation carried a far lighter atmosphere. The King and Queen of Arendelle had come to the conclusion that Snow was not their enemy, even if they could not determine if he was their ally. They chose to provide him sanctuary, but elected to not trust him completely. Anna had lost some of her resentment for the man after his heartfelt apology for not saving her kingdom and family, but still held a fierce rivalry towards the man over Elsa. Elsa, was finally able to thank him for saving Anna all those years ago, but her quest for knowledge did not abate. Her "training" was set to start once Snow had recovered a bit more, and when he was capable of exerting his will onto the atomic world once more. Snow predicted it would be another month until he was completely healed and that he would be able enough to teach in 3 weeks. Thus, Elsa enjoyed freedom for 3 more weeks.

During this time Elsa tried desperately to mend her relationship with Anna and the rest of her family. Her relationship with her father, which was one of tension prior to Snow's awakening, easily returned to one of love and support after a few short words of apology from both parties. Her relationship with her mother had never really deteriorated, but once she and her father reconnected, her mother became her primary consultant about Anna. Kristoff and Elsa returned to being the close older brother and younger sister that they had always been, often challenging each other to competitions concerning royal duties. However, Elsa's worries kept her at bay from confronting Anna. Elsa was convinced that after the black creature attacked them, Anna realized just how powerless she was to protect her. It tore her heart to think about the sheer disappointment that Anna harbored towards her, and with no parents around to make her decisions for her, it was entirely up to Anna what she did and whom she married. In the woes of worry and anxiety Elsa would often think back to the time that she and Anna were told of their arranged marriage.

* * *

><p>Stellaris<p>

~ 2 years ago ~

The Royals of Arendelle had, once again, dropped in for an unannounced visit on their Stellaian friends. Although, the only one who did not know about this particular visit was Princess Anna, and those who did not know the reason for this visit included Prince Kristoff and Princess Elsa. The two Royal families were sitting around a table enjoying their lunch and chattering vivaciously. Anna and Elsa were sitting next to each other, with Prince Kristoff next to Elsa. On the other side of the table sat the King and Queen of Stellaris, together, with the King and Queen of Arendelle split to the two sides of their friends. The Kings sat together, and the Queens sat together. Sometime during the luncheon, both sets of parents had ceased all chatter and were gazing across the table at the two young Princesses who were sharing a hushed giggle between them. The parents waited for their conversation to end before they would address the two of them together. Anna refused to take a break, and was going off on yet another long ramble of thoughts, Elsa listening intently, not wanting to miss a single thing that passed by the younger girls lips.

The two oblivious girls did not even notice that the focus of the entire table was on them, and that they were the only ones still speaking. Kristoff had to poke Elsa in the ribs to get her to notice, she blushed at the realization and quickly shushed Anna who blushed equally so when she noticed their situation. The looks that the pair of girls got from their parents made them shrink away in fear, they felt like cornered mice facing down a hungry tiger. Both sets of parents chose this moment to ambushed the two unsuspecting girls, and announced that they had all agreed to give Anna to Elsa. Elsa, who often dreamed and fantasized about blissful married life with Anna, was ecstatic at the mentioning of the proposal. However, she held Anna's desires above her own and she waited for the younger girl's reaction before celebrating this God-given blessing.

Anna, who had been too scared to admit her feelings to her parents, was completely shell shocked. Her immediate reaction was to stare at her parents in an attempt to comprehend the unintelligible words that spewed from their mouths. Something about marriage, Elsa, and her, but she couldn't put the words in order let alone comprehend their meaning. The only one who knew about Anna's deepest secret was Olaf, a plush toy that Elsa had given her on her birthday that was modeled after a snowman that they had made together one winter. Yet here she was being told that her greatest dream, her greatest desire had just been promised to her, or rather she was promised to the object of her desires.

Soon after realization dawned on Anna she noticed that all eyes were on her, she had yet to react beyond blinking her eyes. Elsa, who was sitting next to her, was uncomfortably squirming in her seat, waiting to hear of the younger girl's opinion on the betrothal.

Waiting for Anna to express her reaction to the news of their betrothal felt like an eternity to Elsa. She could not sit still, images of their wedding flashed through her mind; she could hardly imagine the angelic form of Anna in a wedding dress. Her legs felt weak at the thought of dancing with Anna in front of the whole Kingdom while she staked her claim on the girl, letting all those present know that Anna belonged to _her_. The thought of the wedding night caused her mind to careen off the cliff of sanity shortly before her mind shut down to prevent a mental meltdown before Anna and their parents. But then a disturbing thought flittered through her mind that colored each of her fantasies with a dark light, _what if she doesn't want to marry me?_ Each of her previous thoughts was quickly morphed into pictures that each dug at her with claws laced with pain and venom. Her previously heavenly imagination of Anna in wedding dress was destroyed when Anna's face changed from one of pure bliss to a stoic, unhappy expression. The experience of dancing with Anna became a superficial chore if Anna did not want to dance with her, and the thoughts of the wedding night became but a distant blur as Elsa realized that if Anna did not want to marry her, then she would certainly not enjoy spending the night in her company.

This new thought plagued Elsa. She loved Anna, but she could not bring herself to take Anna from her happiness. Elsa would swiftly kick her own happiness to the roadside if it meant that Anna would be even the slightest bit unhappy. Anna's lack of a positive reaction to this news drove Elsa to the premature conclusion that Anna truly did not want this, but there was no way to take back what had been spoken. Elsa steeled herself and braced herself for Anna's rejection of the idea, all the while unknowingly holding her breath in anticipation.

As the words that were spoken by her parents final sunk in and were absorbed in their entirety, Anna eyes began to glaze over. She was imagining what life would be like with Elsa by her side. Just being able to wake up every morning next to Elsa, the imagined activities that took place the previous night could not be registered by her brain just yet, would be enough for Anna to sign her soul to the devil himself; but she would be able to spend every waking hour in Elsa's warm, yet wintry presence. The idea of being away from home did form a small block of homesickness in her stomach, but the realization that Arendelle would be her new home, and the recollection of her parents willingness to frequently visit Stellaris, soon dissolved that block of anxiety. Then, Anna realized what must come before her perfect, blissful life with Elsa, the wedding. Oh the wedding, Anna could hardly imagine a wedding dress that could exemplify Elsa's beauty, the only one she could think of was one of Elsa's elegant ice dresses. Anna had a slight shiver at the thought of unintentionally going on an extremely long ramble during her vows, but she knew Elsa would patiently sit there, listening to every incoherent and incomplete sentence that passed through her lips. Anna internally blushed at the thought of the kiss, more so from the idea of having to kiss Elsa in front of her parents, no, the whole kingdom. She elected to not try to imagine what the kiss would taste or feel like, for she did not want her mental functions to come to a grinding halt. As Anna continued to imagine her perfect future together with Elsa, silence stretched on at the dining table.

Elsa was staring intently at the younger girl, trying to pick up some sort of hint as to whether Anna would accept or deny this proposal. However, when she noticed the girls eyes glaze over in uninterest, Elsa swallowed her grief and sorrow from the silent rejection and addressed her and Anna's parents.

"You make it sound as if we don't get a choice in the matter. As if we _will_ get married regardless of whether we _want_ to no not." Those words were far more painful to utter than Elsa initially thought. The very thought of marrying Anna was a 'no-brainer,' of course she would agree, but not if it meant trapping Anna into a marriage that she did not want.

Confused, the King of Arendelle responded to Elsa.

"Elsa, don't you want this? I-we thought that this was the best thing to do."

"The issue lies not in whether this is right or wrong. No, the decision should belong to us. We should have the final say whether we do or do not want to get married."

"… _do not want to get married."_

That line instantly yanked Anna for her daydream, before her she saw Elsa confronting their parents, who all had confused looks plastered across their faces. As Anna recounted the fragment of a sentence that she heard from Elsa, dread solidified into a crushing weight above her. Anna's previous blissful daydreams all but evaporated into smoke and steam at the thought that she was the only one looking forward to the wedding. She was convinced that Elsa liked her more than a friend, but she could not be sure that Elsa saw her as a partner worthy to take her hand in marriage. Confusion and rejection setting in, Anna submitted to her grief and asked for the final stake to be driven through her heart.

"Elsa … you don't want to marry me?" The question was meant to sound like a request for clarification, not the meek pleadings of a glass girl about to shatter.

Elsa snapped her eyes back to Anna the instant her words sunk into Elsa, the process took longer than normal due to Elsa being immersed in the crushing grief of losing her one wish before it could be realized. Her eyes went wide as she took in the younger girl before her. She could see tears on the rim of her eyes, about to spill over and stain the younger girl's face. The girl was holding her abdomen with her arms crossed over the other in desperate protection. She was shivering slightly, whether it was due to the chill that had settled over the room, or if it was out of fear, Elsa could not tell. The younger girls normally bright teal eyes were clouded with worry, dimming the normal brilliant hue to a dull green. Every protective fiber of Elsa's being was twisting and writhing in agony over the pained and tormented figure of the younger girl. She would sooner hunt down and mercilessly kill the menace behind Anna's suffering, if not for the fact that the one who was driving the younger girl to such a fragile state was none other than herself. Elsa could see the gears in Anna's mind turn as she contemplated her false conclusion that Elsa did not want to marry her. She had to act fast, before Anna was gone.

"Of course! … Of course I want to marry you. Its just that … this is all to sudden, we both need some time to think about this…"

"Well, I want to marry you … so what is there to think about?"

All of the tension in Elsa's body evaporated at the younger girls confession. The parents that had been sitting on the other side of the table the entire time each gave a silent celebration, whether that be a fist pump into the air or a high-five with their seated neighbor. The two Queen's wishes to call the other "sister" would come true. The King's had put aside their rivalry and celebrated together in the solidification of the joining of their kingdoms. Elsa and Anna were holding hands and whispering to each other about all of the details about their wedding, including the debate as to who would wear the wedding dress and who would wear the suit.

* * *

><p>Arendelle<p>

~Present~

The recounting of the fond memory preoccupied Elsa all the way from the King's study to her adjoined chamber with Anna. The memories of love and acceptance flooding into her from that time 2 years ago, Elsa summoned her courage and strode to the door to Anna's room.

She knocked thrice, firmly.

No answer.

She knocked thrice more, "Anna? Are you in there?"

Again, no answer.

She was about to leave, when she tried to door handle. It wasn't locked.

Elsa slowly pushed the door open, poking her head into the expansive room. Immediately upon entering, Elsa could hear the faint sounds of Anna's snoring. As she approached the bed, she could see the disheveled state that the bed was in. It was strange, normally Anna slept like a rock, hardly moving at all in bed. Yet here she was sideways in her bed with the blanket tangled around her legs and bending her body in awkward angles. Elsa had to stifle a giggle as she peered at the sleeping girls face, her hair looked like the untamed mane of a lion, and he mouth was ajar and drooling all over the bed and her own face.

_Too cute_.

Then a flash of white caught Elsa's eye. Clutched to the younger girls chest was a mass of fluffy white with sticks for arms and a misshapen carrot for a nose. Anna was hugging Olaf, the plush toy that Elsa had made for Anna for her birthday several years ago. The task of making the gift was difficult and long, but with the help of Gerda, the head of the servants in the castle, Elsa was able to complete it before Anna's birthday. The look of pure joy and happiness that graced Anna's face on that day marked yet another day where Elsa fell further under the spell of Anna's charms. Elsa stood there for several minutes simply enjoying being in the same room as Anna, it had been almost 2 months since they had last held a proper conversation, let alone spent time together. Elsa was mesmerized by the rhythmic rise and fall of Anna's chest as she breathed in and out in blissful sleep. Elsa was snapped out of her trance when Anna began writhing in the bed. Elsa nearly called out to the girl, before realizing that she was still asleep. Anna was clutching the Olaf tighter and tighter to her chest, all the while moaning in pain. Anna's moans were soon replaced by sporadic sobs that bubbled up from her throat. Frantic from seeing her beloved in such a pain state, Elsa immediately climbed onto the bed, resting against the headboard and propping Anna's upper body on her lap. She began to rub the sleeping girl's shoulders rhythmically in attempts to lull her back to peaceful sleep. Elsa whispered nearly silent promises, words filled with love and concern. After several more seconds of twisting in agony, Anna finally calmed down, and fell back into a deep slumber. Elsa remained there, with Anna on her lap, as she stoked the copper locks of the girl sleeping peacefully.

Finally the afternoon church bells in the distance stirred Elsa from her trance; thankfully the bell was not loud enough to wake the still sleeping girl. Elsa remembered that she was to meet with Snow in the afternoon so to discuss how their lessons will begin the following day. Today was the last day that Elsa would be able to spend time with Anna outside of breakfast, lunch or dinner; but even then she was not allowed to converse with the younger girl. Much to her relief, Snow had agreed to schedule in a break into their lesson schedule, as for when and how long the break would last Elsa did not know, she only knew that during the break Snow's rules would not be in effect, it was a sufficient goal to work towards. Elsa wanted so very much to remain where she was, with Anna, but she had to go. It was not proper etiquette to keep a mentor waiting. Elsa slowly slid Anna off her lap and slowly climbed off the bed, so to not wake the girl. Elsa strode to the door and opened it, she looked back to the sleeping girl once more before departing, determination set within her stride. Had the older girl stayed just a few more short moments, she would have heard the faint mumblings of the sleeping girl.

"_She doesn't … love me any … more … Olaf … what do I do? She's all I have."_

* * *

><p>Snow had instructed Elsa to meet him outside the castle, in the courtyard by the barracks that was used by the soldiers for sparring practice. Snow had recovered to the point that he no longer needed to use a wheel chair. His left hand was nearly completely healed, with just a little bit of epidermal tissue that was currently regenerating. His right arm was in a sling, but was no longer a sickly black, instead it was raw and red. The process of re-growing large groups of tissue was both painful and arduous, but his right arm would be completely healed in a week, maybe 2. The numerous cuts and slices that had been distributed across his body, for the most part were covered by his clothes, would remain as scars. His thigh was in good shape and could bear the weight of the body above it. Although, his atrophied muscles had yet to return to their previous strength, so he elected to sitting on the stonewall that divided the courtyard from the street.<p>

Although he had failed to establish a specific time to meet, instead only saying to meet in the afternoon, Elsa was running late. The sun was approaching the horizon, leaving the city with no more than an hour of daylight left.

Finally, after waiting for another 15 minutes Elsa strode into the courtyard.

"Did you enjoy you stroll?" Asked Snow with an accusatory tone.

"Excuse me?"

"No, you are not excused. I was hoping to get an early start on the lessons, but now we can't."

"It is not my fault that you failed to establish a time for this meeting." Elsa snapped back defiantly.

Snow, who was tired from the verbal assault he sat through from the barrack soldiers when he arrived at noon, elected to let it go.

"I suppose so, … from now on I _request_ that you meet me immediately after lunch, at the location that I will mention on the day before."

"I believe I can do that."

"Good. Well then, while we can't get into anything too in depth, we can start your initial evaluation. When I first started with my mentor, I was not able to form complex structures with ice yet, but you have known about your powers for the majority of your life, hence I don't need to teach you how to form ice. I do, however, need to see where you are in terms molecular manipulation. Are you ready to give it a shot? I'll describe what I want you to make, and you will give it you best shot in making it."

"I am ready, where should I make these things?"

Snow pointed to the center of the courtyard with his good hand.

"Alright, lets start out with something simple. Try to make a tetrahedron."

Elsa scoffed at the request, moving towards the center of the courtyard she waved a hand in front of her, instantly forming a medium sized pyramid comprised of glacial blue ice, with 3 sides facing outward and one face flush with the ground.

"Good, that was an easy one."

Snow gestured for her to return to him, he was reluctant to move due to soreness, and did not want to shout instructions across the courtyard.

When Elsa finally reached Snow, standing beside him once more, Snow flicked his wrist in the direction of Elsa's construct. In an instant the solid ice evaporated into steam and dissipated into the atmosphere.

"Alright, now because we don't have enough time to try something more complex, I'll introduce you to what we will be doing tomorrow." Snow twitched his pinky finger on his left hand, and an identical tetrahedron was formed where Elsa's stood just moments before, only this one was of the purest white, and without any impurities. "Destroy my construct without attacking it with ice."

Elsa paused, and then gazed at Snow for a moment. She turned back to the structure of white ice, then back to Snow, confusion evident in her features. She raised her hand, pointing her palm to the sculpture of white ice. She willed the molecules to disperse, to break the bonds holding the ice together, but nothing happened.

"I thought I told you before, people like us cannot interfere with molecules under the influence of another. We can only will into place molecules that are free of manipulation."

"Then how am I supposed to destroy your ice if I cannot interfere with it and without attacking it with my own ice?"

"That is the point of this lesson, you must observe your own situation, assess all information given to you, and formulate a plan that will lead you to success. We are now out of time, we will continue this lesson tomorrow."

"Are we meeting here tomorrow?"

"No, tomorrow we will be meeting just outside of the castle's Royal Guards Quarters."

"… Very well."

"Also, as of right now my rules are active."

Elsa opened her mouth to protest, she was planning on trying to mend her relationship with Anna tonight, before the rules took effect tomorrow. But an unyielding stare from Snow silenced her.

"If you do not like the rules, we can cancel this 'training' before it even began …"

"No! I need this training ... I need to get stronger."

Snow gazed at Elsa for a brief moment, "Why? Why do you need to get stronger?"

"To protect those I love."

"Good answer."

* * *

><p>On the way back to the castle Elsa recounted the events of here brief first lesson in her mind, when she came across a contradiction in her memories.<p>

"Instructor Snow, you said that '_people like us cannot interfere with molecules under the influence of another.'_ Yet how did you evaporate my construct before?"

"Hmm? Oh, well, part of the answer I'm not going to reveal to you quite yet, but i can tell you what I targeted wasn't the water molecules that were under your domain. Instead I targeted their bonds, severing all of them for a short while, allowing the ice to sublimate – or turn into a gas. Also, it helped that the ice was no longer in your 'sphere of influence.'"

"'Sphere of influence'?"

"Yeah, its synonymous with your maximum range. You can freely manipulate molecules that are within your sphere, and any construct that is inside the boundary is reinforced by your presence. However, once the ice leaves your sphere of influence, you can no longer manipulate its structure, and it loses some of its structural integrity. Of course, the diameter of this sphere differs from person to person, and it can even be expanded through training and understanding, and it also fluctuates based on your state of mind. Right now, because you have never received proper instruction, your sphere is approximately 20 meters in diameter."

Elsa and Snow had just arrived at the castle gates and entered the main building when Snow had finished his explanation.

"_20 meters_ … how big is yours?" Elsa contemplated the information quietly to herself before inquiring to Snow.

"… I'm not sure, it's been a while since I last measured it."

"Is it bigger than average?"

"Most likely, although it's not really something that one can openly compare to others."

Elsa blushed at her own unintelligent question. _Of course, there are so few people like us who would he even be able to compare his sphere diameter to?_

"Then what about _your_ mentor? Did you ever compare yours with his?"

"Haha, no. My mentor's was obviously huge, I always felt insecure about asking for a comparison. Not that it's really something to feel insecure about."

"I see."

Elsa and Snow were walking towards the dining hall for diner, both unaware of a young red head who had been following them since they entered the castle and had been listening to the entire conversation since their arrival. Snow, who noticed her shuffling step, chose to ignore her, while Elsa remained oblivious to the younger girls presence, due to being deep in thought about todays information.

The younger girl exploded and let out a high-pitched squeal once Elsa and Snow's conversation ended. Elsa whirled around to see Anna stammering before her, the girls face and hair had blended into the same shade of copper red. Anna struggled to form a coherent sentence as a million different thoughts of rage, disgust and jealousy flew through her mind.

"W-W-WHAT ON EARTH A-ARE YOU T-T-TWO T-TALKING ABOUT!?"

The girl roared in a voice laced with murderous intent and shameful embarrassment.

Snow, who had half turned around to peer at the younger girl who was blushing so furiously that she was nearly passing out, stared off into space has he recounted his conversation with Elsa. Realization dawned on him after a short moment, at a loss for words he elected to shrug and continue his walk to dinner.

Elsa, who was desperately trying to calm the younger girl had no idea what Anna was talking about. Soon enough Anna began to hyperventilate in panic, and fainted in Elsa's arms. Elsa contemplated bringing Anna to her room to sleep, but a thunderous growl of the unconscious girl's stomach redirected Elsa to the dinning hall.

Luckily, as Elsa, with Anna in her arms – bridal style, neared the kitchens the smell of a luxurious meal combined with the chocolaty smell of desert stirred the younger girl from her dreams. She stiffened like a board when she realized that Elsa as carrying her. Anna immediately climbed down off of Elsa and apologized to the older girl.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I can't believe you were carrying me, I must weight a million pounds."

Elsa chuckled at Anna's exaggeration, but waved it off. In an attempt to lighten the moos between them, Elsa tried to playfully poke fun at Anna, "I don't know about a _million_ pounds, but if you keep eating all the chocolate in the kingdom, you just may grow big enough to declare yourself a separate nation."

Anna stared at Elsa in disbelief as the blatant insult passed her lips. Elsa was gazing back at the younger girl like a chastising parent. The two maintained their respective gawks, until they both broke down in laughter and giggles. Neither could look the other in the eye without bursting forth in another bout of uproarious laughter.

However, once Anna remembered the conversation she heard in the hallway her rage and annoyance quickly returned, snuffing out her insatiable laughter in an instant. She swiftly retracted her apology and stormed off to the dinning hall without so much as glancing at Elsa. Elsa was left dumbfounded in the hallway; they were having a lovely moment just giggling together, yet for somehow Elsa managed to mess it up. She thought that her chocolate eating comment was benign, but according to Anna's reaction it obviously insulted her, or so Elsa concluded. Reluctant to see her beloved while she was mad at her, Elsa trudged down to the dinning hall to join her family and mentor for dinner.

* * *

><p>The following day, Elsa skipped breakfast. She did not want to be forced into the same room as Anna, knowing that she would be unable to even talk to the girl to apologize for her mistakes, or accept Anna's anger. So she chose to avoid the issue and hide in her room until it was time to meet Snow.<p>

By the time lunch rolled around, Elsa was getting hungry; so she slipped into the kitchen to grab a quick bite to eat before heading out to the in-castle barracks for the Royal Guards. There she saw Snow leaning against the large door, wearing a solemn expression.

Snow glanced up at Elsa, grief tearing into him like a hungry tiger tearing into the recently killed carcass of its prey. The memories of the previous night still fresh in his memory …

* * *

><p>Arendelle – King's Study<p>

~16 hours ago~

"Is there no other way? Must she be put through such torture?"

Snow had just finished explaining to the King of Arendelle exactly what his "training" will entail.

"It is necessary. It would take several years for Elsa to improve even slightly with other methods. Time is not on our side, we need to bolster our power now, before we are attacked again."

The King shuddered as he thought about what he was allowing to happen to his only daughter. Pain and torment filled his eyes as he gazed back at the feeble man before him. This man's eyes were clear as day, but held within them something unmistakable. The King flinched as he recognized the look in the man's eyes, for he was experiencing the same emotion, self-loathing.

"Why? How can you be so willing to do this?"

Snow hesitated before answering.

"I am not a good person, I am not a saint, nor am I a hero. For the duration of this training it does not matter what I become in Elsa's eyes. She may see me as the physical embodiment of evil, as a demon, or as the devil himself, but it does not matter. When my mentor trained me, he put me through the same lessons and I hated him with every fiber of my being. The kind-hearted man that saved me from myself disappeared when it came time to train. He was replaced with a demon that lived on my pain and suffering. I even tried to kill him several times."

The King winced at the pure resentment that Snow carried in his voice.

"But in the end I was stronger for his cruelty, and the compassionate father figure that I had learned to love and respect returned."

"But like I said, I am not a good person. For the next several months Elsa will scorn me, hate me, resent me, and she may even try to kill me, but you must never intervene. This will become a war between us, her struggling to remain who she is through the pain, all the while lashing out at the source of her suffering, and I who will never stop the pain, never take a break, never cease to push her further and further. Her success will only be determined by Elsa's will to live. I believe that she has the potential to succeed; she has a stronger reason to live than many wish they had. And I am willing to become the devil himself, if it means that Elsa will succeed and become a deciding factor in this conflict."

The King ducked his head, resigning himself to his guilt. "Anything you need, please do not hesitate to ask…"

"I am glad you said that, I would like to request that you let me _borrow_ Kristoff for tomorrow."

The King's head bolted upright in the mentioning of his son.

"So you are going to use my son tomorrow while training Elsa?"

"Yes, I feel that jumping straight to Anna might be too much for her, so I decided to start off with Kristoff."

"Very well, I will relay your instructions to him tonight."

"Thank you, Your Majesty"

* * *

><p>Arendelle – Royal Guard Barracks<p>

~Present~

Snow was leading Elsa down the dark stairwell to the prison directly below the Royal Guards Barracks. Just above and behind Snow's shoulders floated two lanterns of murky whit ice, from them a faint glow radiated outward in all directions. The twin satellites cast just enough light in the darkness of the stairwell that they both could walk steadily, but not bright enough for either of them to see their destination.

This descent continued for what seemed like hours to Elsa. Finally when they reached the bottom, they found themselves in a large, expansive dome shaped room lined with torches along the one continuous curved wall. Elsa examined the room with curiosity, she had never been down here nor had she even known that this room existed. Suddenly, she noticed a figure standing at the center of the room. The stranger's face was obscured by the darkness of the room. But the stranger was well built, he had broad shoulders, a solid body, and messy hair. As Elsa and Snow approached the stranger, the lights from Snow's Ice lanterns cast a ray of white light over the stranger's face, it was Prince Kristoff.

"Kristoff, what are you doing down here?"

Elsa received no verbal response, nor did the older male react to her presence. He resembled a statue, standing perfectly erect and not moving a single inch.

Some thing was wrong with her brother. Elsa gazed at the older boy, he was standing perfectly straight, as if he was attending a royal gathering; but he was not conscious, he appeared to be sleeping. Suddenly, Snow spoke up, but he was no longer behind Elsa, he had moved to the other side of Kristoff, so that the Prince was between Himself and Elsa.

"For todays lesson, young Princes Kristoff will be assisting us, but the same rules apply, you are not allowed to interact with him, not that that is possible right now anyway." Elsa nearly missed Snow's last words, but she failed to grasp their meaning.

"What did you do to him?"

"Hmm? Oh just a little bit of hypnotism, and neuronal suppression."

"What!?"

"You see young Kristoff here is missing several … functions. That is to say that I have robbed your dear elder brother of some essential processes that are needed to be considered human. For one, he has lost the ability to hear, this was accomplished by suppressing the activity of the Vestibulocochlear and Vagus cranial nerves that deal with relaying auditory information to the brain. I have also taken his sight from him through suppressing the activity of the Optic nerve. Oh and I also suppressed all of his motor neurons, so to prevent him from being able to walk, or move."

Elsa stared on in horror as Snow continued to rattle off how he has cripple her brother Kristoff. "How?"

"Oh, just a little bit of ligand-receptor kinetic manipulation in the neural synapses of his brain, its something that must be constantly applied. Thus, his condition is only temporary."

Elsa released a slight sigh at Snows confession that Kristoff was not permanently damaged.

"OH! I forgot, he is still able to speak though. His pain receptors have remained in tact, so he can still feel pain."

Following this statement Snow formed a solid block of ice in the air just above his hand, and proceeded to hurl the solid object at the Prince's shoulder.

The impact was solid and sickening. The force applied to the block of ice was several times harder than necessary, resulting in Kristoff hissing as the pain laced across his shoulder.

Elsa immediately moved to place herself between Snow and Kristoff, but the sadistic mentor was no longer there. In the place he stood but a moment ago, floated the two icy lanterns that had previously followed him. Elsa whirled around, pacing around her immobile brother, searching the surrounding darkness for signs of her mentor.

Suddenly a strong draft blew through the large room.

_Odd, we're underground, how can there be a draft? … Oh no._

Elsa realized too late. The wind picked up in ferocity, and began to swirl around the room, picking up speed as time passed. Soon the feeble torches around the room were being blown out one by one, until one large gust came through, snuffing out the dying lights in one fell swoop. At the center of this storm, in the center of the room, stood Elsa protectively guarding her older brother. The twin icy lanterns had moved to hover over the immobile man's shoulders. Once the only light in the entire chamber remained in the center of the domed room, the wind died down slightly.

On the frigid air currents was a equaling chilling voice that was devoid of all emotion and warmth.

"You must always be aware of your surroundings." The voice was raspy and insubstantial due to being carried on the wind.

"Why are you dragging my brother into this?"

"You need motivation…"

The response chilled Elsa to her core; this was not the man that she had come to turn to for advice. This _thing_ was not her mentor. _It_ was something else entirely.

Silence stretched on indefinitely, only the sound of shifting winds broke the eternal void of silence. Suddenly, Elsa heard the worst noise imaginable. The sound made her bones grate in pain, the pitch did not sound human. The raw emotion that was being carried on this one sound threatened to overwhelm her. The sudden explosion of intense stimuli disorientated her, she frantically searched the darkness for the source of the blood curdling noise. She searched and searched with no avail, she could not identify the sound, nor where it was coming from. Finally realization dawned on her, and she froze where she stood. Slowly she turned around to face the figure she had been circling. Her elder brother, Kristoff was shrieking in pain and agony. Tears streamed down his face, pouring forth from eyes devoid of all light. Elsa glanced down to his body, thick layers of frost were developing on his legs and arms, the white corruption crept up his limbs with each passing second, never stopping.

Elsa cursed to herself, for her own resistances to the cold had made her ignorant to how far the temperature in the room had plummeted. It was cold enough in the room, that the water in the epidermal cells of Kristoff's skin was freezing solid, resulting in an excruciating experience of feeling flash frostbite.

Elsa frantically willed the forming ice to melt away from her brother's body, but nothing happened. A memory chose this time to flitter through her mind, "_people like us cannot interfere with molecules under the influence of another."_

Elsa was frantic, with each passing second the ice slowly encased Kristoff's limbs. Again and again, she willed the ice to melt, but to no avail. The ice would not respond to her directions, only to the commands of the one controlling it.

Immediately Elsa changed tactics, switching her focus from her freezing brother, to the surrounding whirlwind. She lashed out at the black wind in desperation, her ice taking on the form of crude spikes and spears, each one missing its invisible mark and shattering against the solid outer wall. With all options exhausted, Elsa crumbled, submitting to the merciless wind and began to plead with the monster that was the cause of this suffering.

"Please! … Instructor Snow! … stop … he'll die!"

A low vibration reverberated through the black wind.

"He will die regardless, whether he dies now or when that black demon returns, it makes no difference. The only way for him, or anyone else you care about to be saved is if _you_ protect them. If you are so willing to give up now then I severely overestimated your character. I thought you were more than … _this." _

The last sentence was laced with venom and disappointment, both crushing Elsa in despair. Summoning her strength one last time, Elsa turned her attention back the ice that was now refreezing into dense layers over every inch of Kristoff's skin. The ice cocoon muffled his screaming, which only added the additional feeling of suffering to the cry. Elsa poured her all into willing the molecules around her brother to vibrate. But again, nothing happened, she could not summon enough friction to melt the ice. Resigning herself to the cold and bitter wind, having exhausted all options and herself, Elsa slumped to the floor. Exhaustion claimed her, and she began to drift into unconsciousness. Her last moments of cognitive function registered the solidification of the cocoon around her brother. As her vision faded into blackness, she could hear the icy cocoon that was killing her brother, crack and shatter. Then her world was swallowed into the bottomless void of silence and darkness.

* * *

><p>Snow looked over the unconscious girl, muttering unending apologies that she would never hear. He was checking over her body for any wounds that he may have accidentally caused, luckily she was only exhausted and had no parenteral wounds on her. She did, however, had a nasty bruise forming on her left arm from when she fell to the ground before fainting. After rechecking the girl once more, Snow stood back up and strode to the icy cocoon that stood at the center of the room. All the while contemplating her astounding achievement in their first day of Hell.<p>

_She came close to grasping the solution, but she was too far gone to know what she was doing.__ Took me a lot longer to grasp the concept, she just may be able to surpass me in _this_ element._

With a wave of his hand the cocoon began to melt, layers of frost washed away and evaporated as they hit the icy stone flooring. Snow grimaced as he peered inside, he was unable to look at the inhabitant of the cocoon. Electing to leave what remained of the cocoon standing, Snow scooped up Elsa off the floor and carried her to the infirmary, leaving the cocoon and its inhabitant in the domed room.

* * *

><p><strong>I little bit of mystery returns.<strong>

**Realized too late that i forgot that last bit at the end**

**By the way, if anyone wants to try and guess about anything, I am interested in hearing what you think. Just know that I may not necessarily confirm, nor deny any claims that are close to what I initially planned.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Just to be safe: I do not own any characters created by Disney**

**I'll be honest; I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I particularly enjoyed the explanations about light and electromagnetic radiation. As always, I am confident that all my information is scientifically correct, but if anyone notices that something I said it drastically wrong, I ask that you point it out to me so that I may fix it.**

**That's all I have to say.**

**Enjoy, even if I know few will.**

* * *

><p>Twenty-four hours passed before Elsa would wake. Once she realized that she was in the infirmary she half expected Anna to be there to comfort her, but that fleeting dream was nothing more than hopeful wishing. As she struggled to open her eyes, she saw <em>him<em> sitting in the chair next to her, chin resting on his chest as he slept in an upright sitting position. Elsa cleared her throat, waking the man immediately. At first Elsa swore she saw a glimmer of regret pass through the man's face, but that thought was discarded as she saw the indifference solidify the man's features into a cold and calculating gaze.

"Good your awake, that means we can resume your lessons tomorrow."

Elsa grumbled, then realization hit her as she remembered her first lesson the day prior. She leapt at the man, reaching for his throat, but Snow was too quick, he easily deflected her grasp and redirected her momentum to carry her off the infirmary bed, causing her to land on the unforgiving marble flooring. Elsa let out a hiss of pain from the impact, followed by a deathly glare that was leveled at her intended target. Snow's eyes were as solid as ice, and equally cold. His personality adopted the same characteristics when he spoke to the girl on the floor,

"If you're so eager, then save it for lessons."

_Right back at you._

The unconscious comment directed to himself snapped Snow out of his adopted chilly persona.

Then, like the final break in a storm, the clouds cleared. Snow's hard and cold gaze shifted to the window, and his body relaxed, releasing tension that Elsa did not notice he was holding. Snow sighed, closing his eyes, and sat back down into the chair he was sleeping in before Elsa woke. His eyes thawed, returning to the oddly mysterious and welcoming gaze of the man that had been living in the castle for several weeks, all semblance of his cold hostility has vanished.

Elsa, noticing this change in demeanor released a breath she did not realize she was holding, and brought herself up off the floor. Snow offered his left hand to help the fallen princess. Elsa was hesitant to take his hand, considering what he did the day before, she could not fully trust that he would support her, but the warmth in his features dared Elsa to take a leap of faith. Thus, Elsa took his hand and pulled herself up using the steadfast grip as an anchor in the air.

"Thanks," mumbling her gratitude below her voice

Snow waved the comment away with his hand, then brought his only mobile hand up to rub the back of his neck for it ached from the awkward angle it rested at while he slept in the chair. Snow took a deep breath to dispel any lingering drowsiness, and opened his mouth on the exhale to address the now standing princess before him.

"I know you have many questions about yesterday, but know that while I cannot answer all of them I am willing to establish a deal with you. After every lesson I will answer any question you have for me in full detail, leaving nothing out. However, I still have the choice to refuse to answer questions that I regard as pertaining to information that must remain unknown."

Snow offered his hand once more to the princess, except this time he brought up his still recovering right hand to shake on the agreement, "Do we have a deal?"

Elsa thought about the proposition for a few moments, the allure of answers given in full, rather than the half-truths he often gave her, did peak her interests. However, she hated nothing more than deliberately being left in the dark about things of great importance, so she extended her own right hand the take Snows in agreement, but stopped short by a few inches, "I'll agree to this only if you give me a reason why you will not answer the question that you refuse to answer."

At the mentioning of the additional condition, Snow retracted his hand slightly, while Elsa mover her hand forward. This resulted in the gap remaining the same, but with Elsa's arm fully extended, and Snow's hand partway to the agreement. Snow sighed, and then moved his right hand forward gripping Elsa's hand in his, he shook it firmly but gently, not wanting to injure the princess. Elsa on the other hand flexed her hand to its fullest extent to express her determination for holding him to this promise. After the deal had been formed, both released the hand of the other. Snow's right arm fell back to his side, where his left arm grabbed it and placed it back into its sling. Elsa brought her left arm up, draping it over her body just below her bust, and propped her left hand up on the balled up fist that resting near her left elbow, bringing the hand up to her mouth. The stance clearly portrayed that she was lost in deep concentration. Snow, noticing this, opened his mouth to inquire about what she was thinking about, but was cut off by Elsa.

"So what should I ask today?"

"What?"

"Well, you did say that I could ask any question after every lesson, and today is technically 'after a lesson'"

Snow, sighed yet again and raised his hands in surrender, "fine, what do you want to know?"

Elsa's features darkened, her demeanor shifting to one of open hostility. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees, and continued to plummet as the silence stretched on. Snow could do nothing, but sit and wait for the storm to pass.

"Where- no. _Why_ did you drag Kristoff into my lessons?"

Snow, broke eye contact to look out the window, want desperately to be anywhere than before the frigid princess. He curtly took a small intake of breath before replying, "I exercise my right to refuse to answer that."

Elsa's features thawed, "I figured you would say that, then at least let me know why you won't tell me."

"If I were to tell you, then your lessons would become meaningless."

"What do you mean?"

"That is all I will say of this topic, choose a different question."

Elsa, sighed in defeat, and then proceeded to wrack her brain for one of the many questions that she had always wanted answers to concerning her and Snow's powers. Memories of one of the magical feats that had stumped her from yesterday surfaced as the greatest mystery for her at the time.

"Those lantern-like things that were hovering over your shoulders on the way to yesterdays lesson, what are those things?"

Snow chewed his lip, obviously considering rejecting Elsa's second question. Elsa was about to reinforce her question, by repeating herself in a more demanding, royal tone of voice, but was cut off when Snow began to speak.

"If you mean these-" Snow raised his left hand, palm up, and constructed two icy lanterns once more, "-then I am willing to explain how they work."

Elsa leaning in to ensure that she received all of the information, even if she was slightly giddy to finally get some complete answers.

Snow gazed down at the two icy constructs floating just above the palms of his hand. Both were identical in shape and size and color, both were a pure white that was slightly opaque along the fringes of the ice, but the centers where a solid milky white. Two hexagonal pyramids, with their hexagonal faces flush with each other composed the icy constructs, resulting in floating ice crystalline structures with deadly sharp points at either end. Each crystal was roughly 16 inches from tip to tip, and floated an inch above his hand. Both emitted a dull light that seemed to grow in intensity as time passed.

Snow took a deep breath, collecting himself, before diving into his explanations.

"These are just as you described them, lanterns. Only, these lanterns will throw no heat and will never die out, so long as they are within reach of my influence."

"As with most of my constructs they are made of ice, they are able to float due to residing so close to my person, and thus inside my range of influence that I am able to will them to any coordinates around myself."

"Also, they exist in pairs, this is because the light given off by one . These two puts too much of a burden on myself, and thus splitting the work up into two targets eases the strain on me. These constructs have a hollow space at their centers; in this space there is an abundance of rebounding photons of light. I have manipulated the refractory index of the ice to absorb photons readily, and to release the light slowly. This phenomenon is similar to glow-in-the-dark substances, which absorb light then release said light over time and often at a different wavelength."

Elsa interjected to inquire about a subject she was lacking in, "wavelength?"

"Yes, wavelength. Light, as we perceive it, is nothing more than tiny subatomic particles that are vibrating through space at a given frequency or wavelength. There are other varying properties of light, such as intensity and polarization, but we do not need to get into those to explain how these work. There is one other property that I do need to explain, and that is radiance. First, lets start out at frequency and wavelength."

"Photons of light carry with them a certain degree of energy, this energy is represented by a sigmoidal wave. With the distance between wave peaks equaling the wavelength and the number of complete cycles from peak to zero, to trough, to zero, and back to peak representing one oscillation. How many oscillations occur in a single unit of time is called the frequency. There is also the amplitude, which is the distance from the zero mark to the peak; this denotes how much energy the photon is oscillating. The wavelength and frequency determine how the light is perceived through different optical lenses. For instance, the human eye is able to perceive light whose wavelength falls between 390 and 700 nanometers (nm); those units are equal to 10-9 meters. So, light that appears to be the color red is due to photons of light having the wavelength of about 650 nm."

Elsa cut into Snow's explanation abruptly, but the man did not seem to mind much, "So does that mean that my ice absorbs light at whatever wavelength blue is?"

"Actually, no. It's the opposite. Your ice has that blue hue because all wavelengths of light are being absorbed by the ice, except for the color that you see. This makes sense if you think about it because if light is absorbed it is not bouncing off the surface and reaching your eye for perception, then you will not see any color of light that is absorbed. Thus, for you to see your ice as blue, then all other wavelengths of light must be absorbed, leaving the blue light as the only color of light to bounce off the ice and reach your eye."

Elsa, struggling to grasp the concept, nodded. "Then what is the wavelength of white light? Since your ice is white."

"Ah, this is where it gets somewhat tricky. There is no wavelength for white light; white light is the result of the eye being exposed to and seeing all wavelengths of light, from 390 nm to 700 nm. Hence, for my ice to have its white appearance it must reflect all photons of light with wavelengths from 390 to 700 nm."

Snow paused to see if Elsa would catch onto the potential contradiction between the science and the phenomenon occurring in front of her. To his disappointment, she did not, Elsa only nodded and waited for Snow to continue.

"The last component of light that I will go over is radiance. Radiance is the more scientifically accurate term for brightness. The science behind the radiance phenomenon is far more complex than is needed for this explanation, but just know that by manipulating the radiant flux value of light can increase the brightness of a light source. The unit of radiant flux is measured in a watt-"

"What?"

"Correct, and watts are the units assigned for joules per second, and joules are a measure of energy. Thus by increasing the amount of energy in a cluster of photons, one is able to increase the joules, and in turn increase the number of watts being produced, and in turn increase the radiant flux value of the photons, thus increasing the overall brightness of the light source. Combine this phenomenon with the efficient absorption and emission of the ice crystals, as well as the very minimal amount of energy that is transferred in via my will to sustain the energy balance, and you get two rechargeable light sources that are perpetually sustained."

"This near self-sustaining phenomenon occurs because the light that is trapped at the center of one of the crystals is getting a slight boost in energy from myself, and then a portion of that light is released from the ice, and illuminates the surrounding. The crystals replenish their photon supply by absorbing high-energy photons from the environment; I only need to par down the energy of these photons so that they have wavelengths that fall in the spectrum of visible light. This cycle continues until an equilibrium is reached, where I am putting in very minimal energy to convert high energy photons from the environment to lower energy ones in the visible light spectrum, and sometimes boost the energy of low energy photons up into the spectrum of visible light. Thus, this phenomenon results in light being produced at a sustainable and sufficient level to be used as lanterns."

Snow took a deep breath, "Does this make sense?"

"Well, yes and no. You said that your ice reflects all colors of light, so how can it absorb photons from the environment?"

Snow gave a slight smirk, "I was hoping you would catch that contradiction. Yes, because my ice is white, it reflects all photons that fall within the spectrum of visible light, but it can absorb photons with wavelengths that are outside of the spectrum of visible light. The shorter the wavelength and the quicker the frequency the higher the energy of the photon, for instance photons that are reside just past the highest wavelength for color of the visible spectrum, violet is termed ultraviolet. This means that while the visible color of light, violet, is about 390 nm; ultraviolet is all the light wavelengths that fall between 390 nm and 400 nm. At the opposite end of the scale of visible light is the color red at about 650 nm, but beyond that is non-visible light called infrared light that has a wavelength between 700 nm and 1 mm. Also, a lot of the thermal energy that is released by our bodies is released as thermal radiation. This radiating heat is not to be confused with a high temperature, thermal radiation is the heat you can feel coming off of the body without coming into contact with it."

"My constructs are able to absorb all of these kinds of radiation, and I intervene when there is a need to increase the energy of photons that do not have enough energy to enter the spectrum of visible light."

Elsa understood the gist of Snow's response, but was caught at yet another crack in the logic, this one more fundamental than the previous. "Wait, does this mean that you _can_ influence the electromagnetic particles such as photons, just like your mentor? I thought you said that you couldn't, back on that first night you woke up."

"What I said then was that I am unable to wield photon like my mentor, I cannot reach the same degree of excitation of photons that my mentor could. He was able to take simple radio waves, which are very low energy particles, and boost their energy levels well into the upper range of gamma rays. Gamma rays are extremely high-energy photons that are capable of interacting with physical matter. For instance, the light that you saw emanating from my body on _that night_ was a mix of highly energized gamma radiation, and visible light. The gamma radiation that struck the monster that nearly killed me induced a phenomenon called Compton Scattering, where the high-energy photon transfers its energy to the electrons of the atoms it hits and causes the ejection of the electron from atom. This phenomenon occurred innumerable times all over that demon's form, and considering that electrons are what hold chemical structures together, and the fact that electrons were being ejected from the atoms in the matter that made up the demon's form, it is easy to see why that monster disintegrated. All of the bonds holding atoms together in its form were broken by the ejection of the electrons that made up those bonds, thus resulting in the dissolving of the matter down into the individual atoms."

Snow, finally ended his explanation and paused to rethink everything that was said to ensure he did not misspeak. Finally, satisfied with his answer, he turned to a stunned Elsa, "Do you understand?"

"I think I do, but it will take me a while to fully understand everything that was explained."

"I expected so, if you need me to repeat anything, please do not hesitate to ask. I will not count it as another question."

"You have my gratitude."

Snow nodded, then stood to leave. Once he reached the door he turned once again to the now yawning Elsa. His previously warm and inviting atmosphere was snuffed out like a dying flame, "Lessons will resume tomorrow afternoon, at 1 o'clock. Do not be late."

Elsa could only gulp in response.

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><p>The following morning, Elsa went to breakfast. The King and Queen, both wearing solemn expressions sat and ate in silence. Anna had carried her food to one of the large windows to the side of the dining hall to eat while watching the busy citizens go about their morning duties. One chair was empty, Prince Kristoff was absent. Elsa slipped into her chair and began to indulge herself in the food on the plate before her; it was a feast fit for heaven, at least compared to the bland and tasteless infirmary food she was forced to suffer through the day before. As if on queue, Snow walked into the room once Elsa had seated herself. All eyes turned to the man, one pair stuck between admiration and rage, another in murderous jealousy, the third pair shone like daggers that only an outraged mother could wield, and the final pair stared at the man in pity and camaraderie.<p>

Snow, noticing the atmosphere of the room and elected to not sit for breakfast, but to simply deliver the message he came to deliver. Turning to Elsa, he began relaying instructions regarding the day's lessons.

"When you with lunch at noon meet me in the same room that we trained in 2 days ago, I assume you already know how to get there."

Elsa nodded, not wanting to speak to the man.

"Good, see you then."

Snow strode straight out of the room, not bothering to give greetings to the three others in the room.

When he was finally out of the room Elsa and the queen fumed their rage by sighing angrily, the Princess by the window deflated, thankful that the man was gone, and the King released a breath he did not know he was holding. After a short beat of silence in the room, breakfast returned and the family made small, albeit awkward conversation.

The topic at the table never remained in one place for long, but Elsa desperately wanted to bring up one topic in particular. A brief bout of confidence gave her the strength to interrupt her father just as he was about to delve into the ever-changing trade agreements with one selfish trade partner, Weseltown.

"That Duke is insufferable, he had to gall to demand, _demand_, that we of Arendelle-"

"Father! I am sorry for interrupting, but have you seen Kristoff since two days ago?"

The King was initially taken aback by the interruption, but the mentioning of his son called forth a desolate wind of depression to sweep though the dinning hall.

"Elsa, you remember the rules, you cannot interact with your brother … or Anna."

"I just want to know if you have seen him since … since my Snow's lessons have started?"

The King sighed, "No, Elsa. I have not seen Kristoff, but you know him, it wouldn't be the first time he slept in the stables to spend time with his best friend and pet, Sven."

"True … but …" The thought of recounting Snow's lessons on the first day to her parents and to Anna, proved too much for her and she stopped just short of accusing the man of harming her brother.

_After all, Snow is strong enough to kill all of us. If we anger him, what's to stop him from turning against us?_

* * *

><p>Again, Elsa was descending the stairs into pitch darkness, only this time there were no icy lanterns to light the way. However, Elsa had a good enough memory, and she remembered the way down. Once she reached the main room once more, a figure stood at the center of the room just like before. The silhouette of the man resembled Kristoff, it was larger with broad shoulders and had a body built for heavy labor and capable of summoning great strength. Elsa dashed towards her brother.<p>

However, just feet from the elder sibling a wall of white ice shot out from the ground, impeding her progress forward. The wall of white formed a somewhat see through hexagonal prism around Kristoff, trapping him in the white veil.

Snow appeared off the side, he was not looking at Elsa, but at his encased prisoner. With a wave of his hand he summoned a white javelin of solid white ice. Then he formed two more, the tools of war floated in a in a vertical column, with the lowest one just inches off the floor. The tips of the weapons pointed at the man trapped in the ice, and with a slow moving gesture, the spikes of ice began to creep towards their target. Elsa jumped forward, placing herself between the ice javelins and Kristoff. She quickly constructed a wall of ice before the slow moving spears of white ice to stop them in their tracks, but Snow continued to push the weapons slowly. The white harbingers of death were not quick nor swift, only slow and steady. When they came incontact with Elsa light blue wall of ice, they did not give pause, they only advanced, easily pushing past the wall, piercing it like a hot knife would butter. Snow sighed at Elsa's futile attempts to protect her brother, she was throwing wall after wall of ice in a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable.

"You need to stop trying to fight ice with ice …" Snow's hint was so quiet Elsa barely heard it over the pounding of her heart as adrenaline was being pumped through her veins.

'_Fighting ice with ice'? I think the proper saying is 'fighting fire with fire.' Either way I'm doing all I can! How else am I supposed to fight ice magic? … Wait, no, this power is so much more than that! Think! Rather than fighting ice with ice, what can I do? _

The corrected figure of speech flittered through her mind once more:_ fighting fire with fire. That's it, if I can't fight ice with ice, nor fire with fire, then I just have to fight ice with fire!_

Elsa abandoned all semblance of strategy; instead she redirected all of her focus to the molecules surrounding the icy weapons that slowly crept through the air towards her bother's life. She poured her all into willing the molecules to vibrate, pushing it further and further, until the oxygen in the air was consumed in the extreme heat, resulting in the blossoming of a ball of fire in the air. The inferno that had engulfed the icy spears was short lived, despite Elsa pouring energy into the molecule around the javelins, the fire subsided and eventually died. All options exhausted, Elsa could only watch as the spears of white death approached unimpeded, if not slightly smaller due to melting somewhat.

"Why!? What do I have to do?"

Snow stared on solemnly, then when the spears were a mere inch from piercing the Princess' delicate flesh, Snow flicked his wrist and a gust of wind blew the barely standing woman to the ground, out of the way of the icy tools of war. Elsa had not the strength to pick herself up, nor the strength to defend her brother from his impending doom.

As the icy spears neared their target, the white veil that surrounded its immobile prisoner became less opaque, solidifying into a slid white column. Elsa could do little but stare on in horror as the white spears reached the now solid white veil. Yet they did not stop, the javelins proceeded to slice through the veil, plunging deeper into the column, until a blood-curdling cry erupted from the column. Elsa nearly puked from the sheer sound of the scream, her skin crawled and her extremities fell numb, as the pain in her brothers voice reverberated off the stony walls of the room. Then the tips of the icy spears emerged on the other side of the column, dyed in a deep crimson red. The contrast of blood to the icy white spear made the scene all that much more repulsive to Elsa, no longer able to keep the contents of her stomach down, she ejected lunch from her system, as if it was a deadly poison. Elsa was hit by sudden vertigo, and promptly fainted. Her brother's screams fell onto her deaf ears as she slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p><strong>Not as long as the last chapter, but I believe that I may be able to start working on the next chapter sooner if the chapters aren't so long.<strong>

**Again, any theories about what I have planned will not go without their due attention.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Kinda rushed this, not much proof reading and revising. then again, it short anyways so ...**

**Just to be safe: I do not own and characters created and owned by Disney**

**I don't really have anything to say, other than an apology for posting that "wall of [incoherent] text," I don't know what happened.**

**So, enjoy, even if I know few will.**

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><p>White Ice and Black Blood Chapter 8<p>

Something wasn't right, something was wrong. The pieces did not fit together. There were too many flaws in the façade, too many holes in the story. The situations was too unrealistic, not the details, but the setting. The pain was real, the suffering was real, even the throbbing of her mind was real, but the threat wasn't. The "enemy" was trying to make this a match between to absolute sides, when in reality there were no sides. The character of this "enemy" didn't fit; he was too cruel, too savage, and too merciless; almost as if the character was forced, or as if the situation truly wasn't real. Yes, that must be it, or maybe it's both. The character is forced, and the situation is false; only that would explain recent events. The "enemy" carried out his "evil" deeds with too little contemplation, too little hesitation – although the hesitation was there. These "evil" acts made no sense otherwise; the lack of consequence did little to make this ridiculous situation any more believable. Give it 24 hours and we would be at the starting line again, the previous days "evil" deeds completely wiped clean from the records of existence, but _he_ was trying to pull attention away from that. _He_ was trying to catch her off guard, put her in a situation where she only had time to react, not think. However, the plan was flawed; all attacks were directed at _him_ or _it_, she could not deduce what exactly she was being forced to protect day in and day out. It was certainly not her brother, or so she theorized. The risk, however, was not one she was ready to lay her brother life on the line for, if she was wrong she would lose a precious member of her beloved family. Her command of knowledge in this field was scarce at best, she did not have access to all the answers to this new world that she had always been a part of, but never attempted to understand. Hence, she chose to not test her theories, but memories of the countless blurred days spent in that accursed domed room began resurfacing. Every time ending the same way, with her brother – or that _thing_ – frozen, impaled, beheaded, bleed dry, incinerated, crushed, drowned, and many, many other forms of merciless death were dispensed unto that _thing_ like candy to a spoiled child. Although, the "killing" blow would always be dealt out of sight, behind a wall of fire, or inside an ice cage impermeable to light, never was this _thing_ "killed" directly in front of her eyes, but the "death" was there nonetheless.

In the beginning, each death would cause her heart to splinter, and shatter just little bit each time, but as the "death toll" rose, her heart broke a little less with each "lesson." She became accustomed to seeing her dear elder brother die before her, and this became one of her new greatest fears. She feared becoming used to death, death was something that was so foreign to her before the wheel of fate began to turn. Now, it was nothing more than a daily event, an inconvenient, yet tolerable moment in her day. She did not want to be accustomed to death, all her life her father had taught her to be a benevolent ruler who would treasure the citizens and play the role of their protector when the time came, even if she was not destined to rule Arendelle, she still received her father's teachings. But now she was betraying the very teachings that had been passed down from parent to child in the Arendellian Royal Family. She failed time and time again to protect that which needed protection; even if she wasn't sure that _it_ was entirely human. That _thing_ would be killed, then reborn anew the following day. The facts were irrevocable, that _thing_ that looked like Kristoff and sounded like Kristoff could not be Kristoff. Time and time again, that _thing_ would die and be reborn, so what's the harm in doing a little experimenting? She began to formulate a plan for the next "lesson," one where she would test to see if the one under her pitiful excuse for protection truly was her brother.

* * *

><p>He was failing and he knew it. He could not replicate this "training" to the same degree of believability as his mentor could. He was too weak to be able to immerse the two of them in a world of dancing light that felt like a second reality. His mistake was in thinking that he could trick her with only mimicking the character without the stage. Cheap parlor tricks and well times illusions was all that held this smoke show together. He was failing, and he knew that he had to change something before she figured out the trick, and shattered the illusion. The only variable he could change was the character, but the ramifications of carrying out this plan may incur the wrath of the entire kingdom, he may be executed on the charges of breaking their beloved Princess. If this next phase of the "training" was to be done safely, he would need to be slow and deliberate. He could not mercilessly slaughter the new character as he had been doing with the first. Although she was building up a tolerance to death, he doubted she could ignore the death of <em>her<em>. The process of switching would take time, one more lesson with Kritoff, and then he will move on to Anna.

* * *

><p>The layout of this room had become imprinted upon her memory over the past 6 weeks. She knew every uneven stone in the floor, every misshapen brick that lined the walls, every detail of all the surfaces in this accursed domed room. There he was, standing like a statue in the center of the room, unknowingly the lead character in this little "play." It started much like the countless time before it, the wind would pick up, creating a circulating draft that circled the room, the "enemy" hidden somewhere in the swirling wind. Mist would form from thin air, mixing with the wind to form a swirling veil of grey that danced around the room in mockery of the two visible figures stuck on center stage. Then, the "battle" began; pikes of ice would shoot out of the grey veil, all aimed for the heart of the human shaped statue. Elsa would intercept them, she was getting better, she could now redirect most attacks, but these were simple warm-ups. Elsa first discovered how to deflect these icy projectiles by accident some time ago.<p>

One time she was thrown off balance by an ice spear that nearly clipped her flank, thrown into an unbalanced stance she erected a lopsided and poorly angled wall of ice to stop the next one coming at her, the resulting barricade created a highly sloped wall that met the tip of the spear at a 45 degree angle. All of Elsa's previous walls have always been perpendicular to the spears to provide maximum structural integrity, or so she through. But this spear was redirected, glancing off the sloped wall of ice and traveling parallel to the icy construct, onto a flight path that ended at the opposite wall of the room. Upon discovering this Elsa found out that well angled and sloped walls could be used to deflect the projectiles and functioned far better than perpendicular walls that would either crumble or result in mutual shattering of both the wall and the spear. Hence, Elsa advanced one step.

Today was the day Elsa would carry out her plan, and today was the last day Snow would use Kristoff as a shield to compel Elsa to participate.

The assault ceased, giving Elsa a few moments to catch her breath. She was keeping up the act, waiting for a break such as this to strike at her target. Before the onslaught could continue, Elsa summoned her strength and constructed a large cone shaped spear of ice. The cone was highly sloped with deadly sharp point at the tip. The ice continued to build off the expanding base, coming to a stop just before her outstretched hand, Elsa raised her arm, willing the spear to follow in her movements. She cocked her arm back, making like she was going to hurl the spear at the grey veil that continued to swirl in deafening silence around the perimeter of the room. Just before lunging forward, and thus committing her momentum to throwing the spear at the wind, she pivoted.

Elsa spun her body around; spear included around 180 degrees, her true target before her for the first time. Exerting strength that pushed her body to the limit, Elsa released the energy she was storing in her prepped arm and stance, converting all of her strength into forward momentum for the spear. The tip was aimed at the center of the chest of the Kristoff statue that stood stock still before her. The spear rocketed forwards, cutting the air and displacing it faster than the air could move, creating an air draft that followed the icy pike, and filling the room with a the sound of rushing air that pierced the previous dead silence of the domed room. The icy spear closed the already short distance in no time. As the impossibly sharp tip make contact with the chest of the statue-like man, the world slowed down, not due to the influence of any third party, but from the adrenaline that was coursing through her veins. The tip passed through the skin like it was nothing, but that was what she expected, but what followed was outside of the Elsa's imagination. The spear continued through the Kristoff's chest, neither he nor the spear deviated in the slightest as the spear passed through where his sternum should have been, then through the thorax. No blood seeped from the wound, no spattering of blood, and no river of red. Even when the tip of the spear exited through the back of the pierced man, the ice was a clear icy blue, just like it had been before entering his body. The spear's velocity was not impeded in the slightest, it sailed straight through the statue of a man, clearing his figure in a fraction of a second, and slamming into the wall behind the man, shattering into millions of tiny icy fragments. But what was left of the statue man, shocked Elsa the most. What should have been left as a gapping hole in the man's chest did not exist. His chest was still in place, without a single scratch on him, almost as if the spear never passed through him in the first place, or as if he was a ghost.

This last through struck home to Elsa, she needed a confirmation, and so she reached out her hand to feel the chest that she had just tried to obliterate. Just before her fingertips grazed the chest of the statue, the world tipped. Gravity had tilted, she was now standing on the wall with nothing to support her position, and she fell. Elsa could do little as she was thrown horizontally into the far wall, she had nearly exerted herself to exhaustion when she threw the spear, and now she could only tumble through the air. The impact of her back slamming against the unforgiving stonewall rendered her unconscious instantly. In a single moment the lesson ended, and the illusion was shattered.

* * *

><p>A seemingly endless stream of cursing was flowing out of the mouth of an extremely agitated Snow. He was pacing back and forth in the domed room, the unconscious Princess in a crumpled pile at the far side of the room, and the ghostly statue still standing stock still in the center of the room, unharmed. In rage, Snow angrily thrust his arm out at the ghostly statue, resulting in the once seemingly breathing man to evaporate into mist. Thoughts were swirling around in Snow's mind, he was angry that he had failed to stop Elsa in time, and that now the illusion was broken; he also feared that he had used too much strength when throwing Elsa into the wall, he had not used <em>that<em> in a long time, and the fact that he used _it_ on an innocent person, much less his student, filled himself with self-loathing and disappointment in his so-called "self-control." In the end, after several minutes of cursing himself until he exhausted his vocabulary, his fear for the Princess' condition won out, and he carried the unconscious woman to the infirmary.

* * *

><p>"I have failed…"<p>

"'Failed'? What happened?"

"You daughter figured it out, she attacked the ghost with a spear and witnessed the attack pass straight through."

"Little Els figured it out? Ha, Father, I told you she wouldn't fall for this!"

"Quiet Kristoff! I see, my daughter has always been incredibly intelligent when it comes to certain things, she would no doubt become the greatest Queen Arendelle ever saw, if not for Kristoff preceding her in the line for succession. If only she could apply those same problem solving skills to repairing her relationship with Anna …"

"That aside, we are now at the cross roads, either we tell her everything, or continue the façade and hope that she does not remember what happened today well enough."

"Well, if you keep using my clone for your 'lessons' she's just gonna figure it out again. Besides, I'm sick of hiding in my room or in the stables so that Elsa doesn't see me walking around."

"The only other option is to replace Kristoff's ghost with Anna's… but I fear what that will do to her…"

"You have taken a great burden upon yourself, Snow. All for the betterment of my daughter in these difficult times. I trust that you can make this plan a success. I only request that when using my future daughter-in-law's ghost that you be gentle, I fear that even if Elsa realizes that it isn't real that seeing any form of Anna experience pain may be too much for her to take."

"I am in complete agreement with you Your Majesty. I will _try_ to minimize the mental strain on Elsa for the next few weeks, and if I believe that Elsa is at risk of 'breaking' I will terminate the lessons at once."

"You have my thanks."

"Finally! Freedom!" Kristoff bellowed in pure relief and excitement, but was cut off when his father addressed him on his way out

"A minute, Kristoff."

"Yes Father?"

"I know that these past 6 weeks have been difficult for you, but I need you to continue to stay out of sight. Also, I need you to keep Anna Company and keep her out of sight like you have been. It up to you whether to tell her why she has to stay out of sight, but you must be absolutely sure that she will not jeopardize their lessons with the information. You have enough sense to understand why this 'training' is necessary, but I fear that she will not."

"That's gonna be tough, I suppose it may be possible if you form a small squad of chefs to make chocolate for me to bribe her with though!"

Both Snow and the King chuckled at this ridiculous proposal.

"Hey, I'm serious! Anna and I have never been terribly talkative with each other. I always assumed it was because I intimidated her as Elsa's older brother."

"Then now is as good a time as any to befriend your future sister-in-law. Unless, you don't approve of their marriage?"

"What? No! I realize how happy Anna makes Elsa, and how happy Anna is with Elsa! I would never advocate splitting the two of them up!"

"Then perhaps you can help your sister by befriending Anna, and helping the two of them work out whatever is keeping the two of them apart, aside from Snow's stipulations."

Kristoff grumbled at this, he knew that it was the brotherly thing to do if he wanted his sister and future sister-in-law to be happy after everything blows over, but he still knew how much of a pain in the ass it would be. After several moments of inteligble grumblings and a few short curses muttered under heavy sighs, Kristoff looked back of the waiting King and Snow, and accepted the assignment, "Fine."

* * *

><p>Elsa had grown accustomed to the infirmary, for she spent nearly every late afternoon there. On occasion Snow's lessons would end before she was reduced to an unconscious sack of potatoes, but that was rare. Elsa had a nasty bump on the back of her head, which she assumed was due to some sort of injury she sustain from Snow, and what she presumed knocked her out. Her memories of the previous day were hazy at best, but she could not shake the feeling that she had forgotten something essential. It nagged at the back of her mind, twice as much as the dull throbbing that emanated from the bump. Elsa struggled to recall the previous lessons events. The last thing she remembered was the feeling of free falling, like she had jumped off a ledge. This phenomenon puzzled her, the cause of such an event could have been none other than Snow, but how had he accomplished something such as this? She didn't remember being struck with ice, nor was she struck with anything. She was standing there one moment, and then free falling sideways the next … wait, what was she just standing there for? She was reaching for something, or so she thought, the memory of yearning seeped into her being; but the yearning for what? Was she yearning to hug her elder brother once more? To feel his warmth? No, she … had set out to <em>confirm<em> something, but _what_? Her memories was fractured and fragmented into millions of tiny shards of ice following the impact against something solid, she remembered seeing thousands of crystalline splinters of ice falling to the ground all the while reflecting a dull light of the glacial blue surface of each shard, creating the illusion of a falling waterfall of rigid and crystalline blue water. She remembered the lack of _something_, something warm and vital. The lack of this essential essence filled her with both relief and fright; why, she did not know. She remembered throwing something with such force that her bones creaked from the strain, her joints protested against such a forceful exertion. She remembered the feeling of shock and awe accompanied with the ever increasing thumping of her heart, but what followed was black darkness. A void in her memories that obscured the pinnacle of the lesson, the pitch-black veil was impenetrable; it did not even yield to light. The blackness had swallowed up the memory completely, never again to be perceived by the holder. While the memory was so far, it felt so close, like she could just reach forward and take a peak under the black cloth and discoer the secrets of the world, yet her reach was always just short of grasping the incorporeal veil. This loss devastated Elsa, for she knew with every fiber of her being, that the memories locked away behind that veil of darkness held the key to her salvation and would mark the end of her suffering.

* * *

><p>*knock *knock<p>

"Anna? Are you in there?"

Kristoff tapped on the wooden door with the knuckles on the his right hand, in his left balanced a pate piled high with chocolates made specifically for Anna, by the Royal Chefs. He knew Anna was in her room, because she hardly left the sanctuary of her chambers, only for the three essential meals of the day would the depressed redhead venture out into the castle.

"Anna, its Kristoff. I stopped by the kitchen when the chef said that they had just finished a batch of chocolate candies and cookies, but they made too many, so I thought I would share them with you?"

Kristoff internally winced at how pathetic he sounded; he was trying to come off as friendly and nice, but ended up sounding like he was pleading to invade into her privacy.

Reverting to his last resort, Kristoff kneeled down on the floor, brought the platter of chocolates towards the bottom of the door, and began wafting the air around the chocolate through the gap. It did not take along before Kristoff heard footsteps approaching the door, and he stood up. Just as the feet reached their destination, they stopped. The door handle had turned slightly, most likely from Anna gripping the knob on the other side, but she did not open the door, she was hesitating. This moment of suspense seemed to drag on for minutes, until a trembling rumble that sounded like thunder broke the silence. Puzzled, Kristoff looked to his right and out a near by window,

_Strange, the sky's clear…_

Following the apparent weather anomaly of cloudless thunder, the door to Anna's chambers finally opened, and a blushing redhead poked her head out into the hall. It took Kristoff several moments to realize that that thunderous sound came from the stomach of the shorter redhead before him. As the two stared at each other, one mid blush and the other staring at the younger girl in surprise, they both broke out into a fit of giggling and laughter. With the ice finally broken, Anna invited Kristoff into her room so that they could enjoy the chocolate together, and debate perhaps the most important question in the world, are reindeers better than people?

* * *

><p>Elsa had discharged herself from the infirmary, she needed to get up and stretch her legs. After struggling with her memories for a good hour, Elsa elected to let her mind rest and take a little stroll.<p>

It was not long before Elsa found her self on the same path that she always found herself taking. Regardless of her own intentions she would always find herself walking to her chambers, and more specifically Anna's chambers that were joined with hers. She had often found herself before the door to Anna's room, but she knew better than try to secretly break Snow's rules, so she would always take a seat in front of the door with her back resting against the solid cold door. She would remain here for a good long while, until dinner approached, when she would reluctantly rise and shuffle to the dinning room.

This time, however, she heard a voice in the hall just around the corner, it sounded familiar, and belonging to a man that was not her father. She crept towards the corner and peered around it. Standing before her destination stood Kristoff, the sheer excitement that followed seeing her brother alive and well almost compelled her to yell out his name and rush towards him to lock both of them in a much missed embrace. She restrained herself, she could not risk angering Snow and having the lessons terminated, too much was riding on these lessons, and Anna's safety was dependent on Elsa getting stronger from these lessons.

Suddenly, a heavenly scent sauntered past her nostrils, the wafts of heavenly richness made Elsa's knees go weak and she clung to the wall to keep herself upright. Elsa desperately searched for the source of the debilitating heavenly scent; her heart sank when she realized that the scent belonged to the god given delectable that currently rested on the silver platter in Kristoff's right hand.

Elsa strained her ears to hear what Kristoff was saying, but she could only make out a few words in his sentences, not enough to comprehend meaning, but enough the grasp the emotions behind the words. Kristoff, was pleading with Anna, almost as if he was desperate for her to hear him. Kristoff's pleas made him sound as if he was desperate for Anna to respond, as if he was desperate for Anna. The though chilled her to the bone, numbing her entire body. Snows lessons had succeeded in distracting her from thinking about Anna, and how they had been drifting apart, but upon hearing what she believed to be pure _need _and _want_ in Kristoff's voice, a single thought resurfaced to the forefront of her mind,

_Anna is free. She makes her own decisions, including whom to marry._

…_whom to marry._

The thoughts that followed this carried Elsa down a dark path of misplaced anger at her brother, and self-loathing for letting something like this happen to _her_ Anna. She knew she was jumping to conclusions, but the sheer volume of internal shouts that were coming form the irrational part of her mind was oppressing her rational mind. For one thing, Elsa wanted Anna to be happy, and part of her accepted that Kristoff could probably make Anna just as happy, it not happier, than she ever could. At the same time, her possessive instincts were screaming at her to march over there, freeze her brother solid and ravish the adorable little redhead right there and then, be damned who saw or heard. Yet at the same time, Elsa was in the woes of grief over losing Anna. Her clearly overloaded brain was dramatizing the entire scenario, but she could do little to stop it now. Elsa also hated herself for feeling the way she was, she hated the fact that she was blaming Kristoff for everything, and that she harbored such rage and jealousy towards him. All of these swirling emotions created an unrelenting typhoon, of unstable emotions and barely contained demands for action that left the rest of Elsa numb all over. While the storm raged on inside her, she continued to watch and listen to the scenario before her. It wasn't until Anna's face popped out from behind the wooden door that the storm passed and moved on. To Elsa, Anna was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, the mortal embodiment of all of the beauty in the heavens. But Elsa's state of serenity was short lived, Anna was staring at Kristoff with a face filled to the brim with a deep crimson flush, why Anna was flushing Elsa did not know, nor did she want to know. For all she knew, Anna was embarrassed about something private that obviously was related to Krtistoff … Elsa shut down that train of thought before it could conjure up another emotional storm. That was until both Anna and Kristoff erupted into a warm, yet privately shared fit of laughter and Anna invited Kristoff inher her private chambers, a place that even Elsa had not had the pleasure to enter in many, many weeks. The storm returned, it was then that Elsa realized the storm had not passed, she had simply slipped into the eye of the storm, and that everything that would follow would be many times worse than before, and so the storm raged on.

* * *

><p><strong>Nothing new to mention in this closer<strong>


End file.
